Augmented Reality
ABSTRACT Augmented reality (AR) has been defined by Barfield and Caudell (2001) as a system in which “a participant wears a see-through display (or views video of the real world with an opaque HMD) that allows graphics or text to be projected in the real world.” Other modalities can be included in AR and information can be subtracted from the real world using augmentation. AR is a computer generated, interactive, three-dimensional environment in which a person is immersed. AR is a field of computer research that combines the actual scene, viewed by the user, and a virtual scene, generated by the computer, that augments the scene with additional information.
Augmented reality offers a major advancement for the military’s use of simulation technology. With mobile AR, users will be able to have a personalized training experience anywhere, anytime. AR will be able to support many applications with the same hardware and a core software system. Potential application areas include training, operations, command and control, and decision support.Traditional training systems and contemporary virtual reality are expensive, have large footprints, often require substantial infrastructures to set up and operate, and can have human performance issues related to simulator sickness. These problems need not be present in AR systems. The principal reason is that AR is based in the real world and uses the computer to add information, eliminating some causes of simulator sickness and the need for generating a complete, synthetic world structure. Mobile AR uses GPS, but is otherwise self-contained, so the infrastructure and footprint are reduced. The real world system basis for AR comes with its own challenges such as providing displays with large dynamic brightness range, tracking over a wide area, and creating interactive effects with real world entities and events. Nevertheless, research is underway in many laboratories to mitigate these problems. Augmented
Augmented reality offers a major advancement for the military’s use of simulation technology. With mobile AR, users will be able to have a personalized training experience anywhere, anytime. AR will be able to support many applications with the same hardware and a core software system. Potential application areas include training, operations, command and control, and decision support.Traditional training systems and contemporary virtual reality are expensive, have large footprints, often require substantial infrastructures to set up and operate, and can have human performance issues related to simulator sickness. These problems need not be present in AR systems. The principal reason is that AR is based in the real world and uses the computer to add information, eliminating some causes of simulator sickness and the need for generating a complete, synthetic world structure. Mobile AR uses GPS, but is otherwise self-contained, so the infrastructure and footprint are reduced. The real world system basis for AR comes with its own challenges such as providing displays with large dynamic brightness range, tracking over a wide area, and creating interactive effects with real world entities and events. Nevertheless, research is underway in many laboratories to mitigate these problems. Augmented
References: * www.sciencedirect.com * www.augmentedreality.com * www.newscientist.com * www.howstuffworks.com * www.citeseer.ist.psu.edu. * www1.cs.columbia.edu * www.lsi.upc.es. * www.cs.ualberta.com