A Survey of the State of Research on Augmented Reality from a Business Perspective using Porter’s Value Chain

In recent years, augmented reality (AR) technology has been able to demonstrate more and more impressively the potential it brings for companies and their valueadding activities, and this even though acceptance of the technology in society is only just beginning. Due to this, our work aims to bring a comprehensive overview of AR deployment opportunities based on the value chain, forcing a symbiosis of potential demonstration and acceptance promotion. For our investigation, we consider the most important peer-reviewed papers on the state of research on augmented reality from a business perspective and provide a comprehensive overview of the different possible uses of AR within a company, structured according to Porter’s value chain, as well as an outlook on future research on the expansion and further development of AR systems. Based on this, we formulate research gaps for future work on AR in the context presented

Development of augmented reality serious games with a vibrotactile feedback jacket

Background: In the past few years, augmented reality (AR) has rapidly advanced and has been applied in different fields. One of the successful AR applications is the immersive and interactive serious games, which can be used for education and learning purposes. Methods: In this project, a prototype of an AR serious game is developed and demonstrated. Gamers utilize a head-mounted device and a vibrotactile feedback jacket to explore and interact with the AR serious game. Fourteen vibration actuators are embedded in the vibrotactile feedback jacket to generate immersive AR experience. These vibration actuators are triggered in accordance with the designed game scripts. Various vibration patterns and intensity levels are synthesized in different game scenes. This article presents the details of the entire software development of the AR serious game, including game scripts, game scenes with AR effects design, signal processing flow, behavior design, and communication configuration. Graphics computations are processed using the graphics processing unit in the system. Results /Conclusions: The performance of the AR serious game prototype is evaluated and analyzed. The computation loads and resource utilization of normal game scenes and heavy computation scenes are compared. With 14 vibration actuators placed at different body positions, various vibration patterns and intensity levels can be generated by the vibrotactile feedback jacket, providing different real-world feedback. The prototype of this AR serious game can be valuable in building large-scale AR or virtual reality educational and entertainment games. Possible future improvements of the proposed prototype are also discussed in this article

Operator awareness in human–robot collaboration through wearable vibrotactile feedback

In industrial scenarios, requiring human–robot collaboration, the understanding between the human operator and his/her robot coworker is paramount. On the one side, the robot has to detect human intentions, and on the other side, the human needs to be aware of what is happening during the collaborative task. In this letter, we address the first issue by predicting human behavior through a new recursive Bayesian classifier, exploiting head, and hand tracking data. Human awareness is tackled by endowing the human with a vibrotactile ring that sends acknowledgments to the user during critical phases of the collaborative task. The proposed solution has been assessed in a human–robot collaboration scenario, and we found that adding haptic feedback is particularly helpful to improve the performance when the human–robot cooperation task is performed by nonskilled subjects. We believe that predicting operator's intention and equipping him/her with wearable interface, able to give information about the prediction reliability, are essential features to improve performance in a human–robot collaboration in industrial environments

Perception-Aware Human-Assisted Navigation of Mobile Robots on Persistent Trajectories

International audienceWe propose a novel shared control and active perception framework combining the skills of a human operator in accomplishing complex tasks with the capabilities of a mobile robot in autonomously maximizing the information acquired by the onboard sensors for improving its state estimation. The human operator modifies at runtime some suitable properties of a persistent cyclic path followed by the robot so as to achieve the given task (e.g., explore an environment). At the same time, the path is concurrently adjusted by the robot with the aim of maximizing the collected information. This combined behavior enables the human operator to control the high-level task of the robot while the latter autonomously improves its state estimation. The user's commands are included in a task priority framework together with other relevant constraints, while the quality of the acquired information is measured by the Shatten norm of the Constructibility Gramian. The user is also provided with guidance feedback pointing in the direction that would maximize this information metric. We evaluated the proposed approach in two human subject studies, testing the effectiveness of including the Constructibility Gramian into the task priority framework as well as the viability of providing either visual or haptic feedback to convey this information metric

Feasibility and effect of low-cost haptics on user immersion in virtual environments

Since the later 1990s research into Immersion, Presence and Interactivity in the context of digital media has been steadily evolving into an exciting area of experimentation, fuelled by advances in the visual, audio and tracking capabilities of Virtual Reality (VR) equipment, thanks to these improvements studies into the effectiveness of this equipment in producing an immersive experience are now possible. This is most commonly achieved by measuring the perceived level of Presence experienced by participants in virtual environments, with the higher the sense of Presence created, the more effective a VR system is deemed to be. However, due to the current limitations of Haptic interaction methods investigation into the role that touch plays in generating this sense of Presence is somewhat restricted. Following a structured process of design and research work, this project presents a new approach to creating Haptic Interaction by deploying a Haptic Prototyping Toolkit that enables Passive Haptic Interactions in Virtual Environments. The findings of this work provide the foundations for future research into the development of interaction methods of this type

Ativação de um braço robótico através de sinais mioelétricos e redes neurais artificiais como protótipo para um estudo preliminar de sensibilidade háptica

As próteses de membro superior representam uma alternativa para melhorar a qualidade de vida de pessoas que passaram pelo processo de amputação. Apesar dos benefícios potencialmente propostos, a taxa de rejeição desse tipo de tecnologia é alta. Dentre os motivos, destaca-se a ausência de uma resposta referente à sensibilidade háptica, relacionada à sensação do toque e à propriocepção, o que torna o acionamento da prótese estressante e os períodos de treinamento prolongados. Com o objetivo de avaliar o impacto do retorno háptico no acionamento de próteses mioelétricas de membro superior, foi implementada a ativação de um braço robótico utilizando sinais mioelétricos e um classificador baseado em Redes Neurais Artificiais (RNA), capaz de distinguir entre movimentos e intensidades a partir de características dos sinais de Eletromigrafia de Superfície (sEMG). O sistema é realimentado, fornecendo uma resposta vibrotátil referente à intensidade de movimento realizada pelo dispositivo. Foram realizados testes com voluntários utilizando apenas resposta visual, apenas resposta háptica e as duas respostas em conjunto. Para os testes com resposta apenas visual, a taxa de estabilidade da ativação foi de 81.1% para a intensidade Fraca, 55.6% para a intensidade Média e 78.4% para a intensidade Forte. Utilizando apenas a resposta háptica, as taxas de estabilidade foram 69.3%, 60.0% e 77.9%, respectivamente. Por fim, as taxas de estabilidade utilizando os dois tipos de reposta foi 81.7%, 65.5% e 84.2%, demonstrando preliminarmente que a performance dos usuários foi superior nessa configuração. As respostas dos questionátios preenchidos ao final dos testes endossaram os resultados obtidos. Porém, é importante notar que os estudos na área devem ser continuados para sua correspondente validação.Upper limb prostheses represent an alternative to improve the life quality of people who have undergone an amputation process. Despite the potential benefits proposed, the rejection rate of this type of technology is high. Among the reasons, the absence of a response regarding haptic sensitivity, related to touch sensation and proprioception, stands out, which makes the activation of the prosthesis stressful and the training periods prolonged. With the objective of evaluating the impact of the haptic feedback on the activation of myeloelectric upper limb prostheses, the activation of a myoelectric robotic arm was implemented using a classifier based on Artificial Neural Networks (ANN), capable of distinguishing between movements and intensities using characteristics of Surface Electrographic signs (sEMG). The system loop is closed, providing a vibratory response relative to the movement intensity performed by the device. Tests with volunteers were performed using only visual response, only haptic response and the two responses together. For the visual-only response tests, the activation stability rate was 81, 1% for the Weak intensity, 55, 6% for the Medium intensity, and 78.4% for the intensity Strong. Using only the haptic response, stability rates were 69, 3%, 60, 0% and 77, 9%, respectively. Finally, stability rates using the two types of response were 81, 7%, 65, 5% and 84, 2%, showing preliminarily that the users performance was superior in this configuration. The questionnaire completed at the end of the tests corroborates the preliminary statement. However, it is important to note that continued studies should be carried out for their corresponding validation

Evaluation of wearable haptic systems for the fingers in augmented reality applications

Although Augmented Reality (AR) has been around for almost five decades, only recently we have witnessed AR systems and applications entering in our everyday life. Representative examples of this technological revolution are the smartphone games “Pokémon GO” and “Ingress” or the Google Translate real-time sign interpretation app. Even if AR applications are already quite compelling and widespread, users are still not able to physically interact with the computer-generated reality. In this respect, wearable haptics can provide the compelling illusion of touching the superimposed virtual objects without constraining the motion or the workspace of the user. In this paper, we present the experimental evaluation of two wearable haptic interfaces for the fingers in three AR scenarios, enrolling 38 participants. In the first experiment, subjects were requested to write on a virtual board using a real chalk. The haptic devices provided the interaction forces between the chalk and the board. In the second experiment, subjects were asked to pick and place virtual and real objects. The haptic devices provided the interaction forces due to the weight of the virtual objects. In the third experiment, subjects were asked to balance a virtual sphere on a real cardboard. The haptic devices provided the interaction forces due to the weight of the virtual sphere rolling on the cardboard. Providing haptic feedback through the considered wearable device significantly improved the performance of all the considered tasks. Moreover, subjects significantly preferred conditions providing wearable haptic feedback

Annual Report 2019 - Institute of Ion Beam Physics and Materials Research

The Institute of Ion Beam Physics and Materials Research conducts materials research for future applications in, e.g., information technology. To this end, we make use of the various possibilities offered by our Ion Beam Center (IBC) for synthesis, modification, and analysis of thin films and nanostructures, as well as of the free-electron laser FELBE at HZDR for THz spectroscopy. The analyzed materials range from semiconductors and oxides to metals and magnetic materials. They are investigated with the goal to optimize their electronic, magnetic, optical as well as structural functionality. This research is embedded in the Helmholtz Association’s programme “From Matter to Materials and Life”. Seven publications from last year are highlighted in this Annual Report to illustrate the wide scientific spectrum of our institute. After the scientific evaluation in the framework of the Helmholtz Programme-Oriented Funding (POF) in 2018 we had some time to concentrate on science again before end of the year a few of us again had to prepare for the strategic evaluation which took place in January 2020, which finally was also successful for the Institute