Augmented reality
Augmented reality (AR) is a field of computer research which deals with the combination of real-world and computer-generated data (virtual reality), where computer graphics objects are blended into real footage in real time.
At present, most AR research is concerned with the use of live video imagery which is digitally processed and "augmented" by the addition of computer-generated graphics. Advanced research includes the use of motion-tracking data, fiducial markers recognition using machine vision, and the construction of controlled environments containing any number of sensors and actuators.
Synopsis
AR is one of the more focused descriptions. It covers a subset of AR's original goal, but it has come to be understood as representing the whole domain of AR: Augmented reality is an environment that includes both virtual reality and real-world elements. For instance, an AR user might wear translucent goggles; through these, he could see the real world, as well as computer-generated images projected on top of that world. Azuma defines an augmented reality system as one that
- combines real and virtual,
- is interactive in real-time,
- is registered in three dimensions.
Fields of augmented reality
For many of those interested in AR, one of its most important characteristics is the way in which it makes possible a transformation of the focus of interaction. The interactive system is no longer a precise location, but the whole environment; interaction is no longer simply a face-to-screen exchange, but dissolves itself in the surrounding space and objects. Using an information system is no longer exclusively a conscious and intentional act.
Outdoor Augmented Reality
A new and major area of current research is into the use of AR outdoors. GPS and orientation sensors enable backpack computing systems to take AR outdoors.
Early systems have been developed by Steven Feiner at Columbia University (MARS system) and Bruce H. Thomas and Wayne Piekarski in the Wearable Computer Lab at the University of South Australia (Tinmithand ARQuake systems).
Trimble Navigation, a provider of positioning solutions, has been researching Outdoor AR in collaboration with the Human Interface Technology Laboratory at its New Zealand R&D site in Christchurch. Local network news has reviewed its progress.
Mobile Augmented Reality
Mobile Augmented Reality, or "mobile AR", is a combination of AR and mobile computing technology on mobile phones. Mobile phone's applications can use both fiduciary marker and markerless video tracking for image registration and insertion of 3d or 2d virtual objects into camera frame. Phone on-line connection in concert with a GPS unit, accelerometer and/or compass could also be used in combination with the camera for image registration.
Some of the earliest applications emerging in this field are projects such as Enkin and Wikitude on the Google Android platform, Tonchidot's Sekai Camera on the iPhone platform, augmented reality marker-based games on the Nokia S60 platform, and Kweekies by int13.
Ubiquitous computing
AR has clear connections with the ubiquitous computing (abbreviated UC) and wearable computers domains. Mark Weiser stated that "embodied virtuality", the original term he used before coining "ubiquitous computing", intended to express the exact opposite to the concept of virtual reality (Mark Weiser's personal communication, Boston, March 1993). The most salient distinction to be made between AR and UC is that UC does not focus on the disappearance of conscious and intentional interaction with an information system as much as AR does: UC systems such as pervasive computing devices usually maintain the notion of explicit and intentional interaction which often blurs in typical AR work such as Ronald Azuma's work. The theory of Humanistic Intelligence (HI), however, also challenges this semiotic notion of signifier and signified. In particular, HI is intelligence that arises from the human being in the feedback loop of a computational process in which the human is inextricably intertwined, and does not typically require conscious thought or effort. In this way, HI, which arises from wearable Computer Mediated Reality, shares a lot in common with AR.
Augmented stereoscopic reality
Stereoscopy can also be utilized in Augmented Reality in order to give the illusion of depth to digital 3D images that are projected alongside real-world objects.