Mobile Augmented Reality

As computers increase in power and decrease in size, new mobile, wearable, and pervasive computing applications are rapidly becoming feasible, providing people access to online resources always and everywhere. This new flexibility makes possible new kind of applications that exploit the person's surrounding context. Augmented reality (AR) presents a particularly powerful user interface (UI) to context-aware computing environments. AR systems integrate virtual information into a person's physical environment so that he or she will perceive that information as existing in their surroundings. Mobile augmented reality systems (MARS) provide this service without constraining the individual’s whereabouts to a specially equipped area. Ideally, they work virtually anywhere, adding a palpable layer of information to any environment whenever desired. By doing so, they hold the potential to revolutionize the way in which information is presented to people. Computer-presented material is directly integrated with the real world surrounding the freely roaming person, who can interact with it to display related information, to pose and resolve queries, and to collaborate with other people. The world becomes the user interface. This chapter provides a detailed introduction to mobile AR technology with in-depth reviews of important topics, such as wearable display and computing hardware, tracking, registration, user interaction, heterogeneous UIs, collaboration, and UI management for situated computing. As part of this introduction, we define what we mean by augmented reality, give a brief overview of the history of the field in general, and review some important mobile AR system considerations. Section 9.2 discusses the potential and possibilities of MARS technology, with a detailed overview of prototype application areas, and reviews the challenges that impede immediate widespread commercial adoption. In Section 9.3 we take a closer look at the requirements and specific components of MARS, before examining UI concepts in Section 9.4. We conclude the chapter with an outlook on research directions.