Enhanced Visual Depth Cues for Collocated Visuo-Haptic Augmented Reality

Our current research focuses on the application of visuo-haptic augmented reality in medical training. The setup developed in this context enables collocated haptic interaction with scene objects. In order to allow natural manipulations, provision of appropriate depth cues becomes a crucial factor. Therefore, we have included fast occlusion handling and shadow synthesis in our augmented environment. The occlusion map is initialized using a plane sweep approach, followed by an edge-based optimization via a Mumford-Shah functional. For obtaining the depth map three head mounted cameras are used and a leftright consistency check is performed to provide robustness against half occlusions. Shadowing is implemented via shadow mapping, considering both real and virtual objects. All steps have been implemented on GPU shaders and are performed in real-time.