Model-Free Markerless Tracking for Remote Support in Unknown Environments

We propose a complete system that performs real-time markerless tracking for Augmented Reality-based remote user support in a priori unknown environments. In contrast to existing systems, which require a prior setup and/or knowledge about the scene, our system can be used without preparation. This is due to our tracking algorithm which does not need a 3D-model of the scene or a learning-phase for the initialization. This allows us to perform fast and robust markerless tracking of the objects which are to be augmented. The proposed solution does not require artificial markers or special lighting conditions. The only requirement is the presence of locally planar objects in the scene, which is true for almost every man-made structure and in particular technical installations. The augmentations are chosen by a remote expert who is connected to the user over a network and receives a live stream of the scene.