Everything augmented: on the real in augmented reality

What is augmented in Augmented Reality (AR)? In this paper, we review existing opinions and show how little consensus exists on this matter. Subsequently, we approach the question from a theoretical and technology-independent perspective. We identify spatial and content-based relationships between the virtual and the real as being decisive for AR and come to the conclusion that virtual content augments that to which it relates. Subsequently, we categorize different forms of AR based on what is augmented. We distinguish between augmented environments, augmented objects, augmented humans and augmented content and consider the possibility of augmented perception. The categories are illustrated with AR (art) works and conceptual differences between them are pointed out. Moreover, we discuss what the real contributes to AR and how it can shape (future) AR experiences. A summary of our findings and suggestions for future research and practice, such as research into multimodal and crossmodal AR, conclude the paper

Bridging books: the printed book as a support for digital experiences

It has been 20 years since Pierre Wellner published the article Interacting with paper on the digital desk [1] where he challenges us to imagine a space where “Instead of replacing paper with computers we could enhance paper with computation”. Two decades after, we see the development of multiple projects that expand the expressive possibilities of traditional books by combining and crossing different media. Nevertheless the interest generated by those projects is limited, most of the time, to the research communities. The purpose of this IDC 2013 workshop is to bring together a community of researchers, publishers and authors to reflect and discuss the present and future impact of mixed media books.(undefined

A Review Of The Features Of Augmented Reality Science Textbook

This paper reviews several literatures concerning the features of Augmented Reality (AR) based textbook that could be applied for science learning in schools in order to make the learning process effective and interesting. The intervention of AR in science textbook could bring a tremendous impact on students’ attitude towards the science subject. Even though there are several other proven and astonishing technologies for learning, AR has been chosen because of its highly potential and immersive characteristics. AR overlays real and virtual environment and displays them simultaneously on a computer screen. This technology offers students with the ultimate imaginary and makes them feel the real experience with scientific concepts which is impossible to experience in real life. This paper identifies several interesting features that could be applied in science textbook. These features are able to cultivate positive attitude and motivate the students to perform well in the science subject. Even though, the existing textbook is comprehensive, there are some limitations that might influence students’ performance in the science subject. By adding some additional features into the textbook, it could overcome the limitations and motivates the students in the learning process. This paper will be of interest to researchers in the areas of Augmented Reality in education as well as science teachers in general. This paper aims to introduce AR based textbook so that it can be widely used in schools especially for science learning so as to motivate students to be more interested in science. The information about the features of Augmented Reality (AR) based textbook that have been discussed in this paper will hopefully be a very useful guidance for other researchers as well as science teachers in planning and developing their own AR based textboo

When Augmented Reality Met Art: Lessons Learned from Researcher-Artist Interdisciplinary Work

Over the last few years, Augmented Reality (AR) technology has quickly evolved and today there is commercial software and hardware that allow the creation of AR experiences. However, it might still be cumbersome to create rich AR experiences without a deep knowledge of the technology. Artists have collaborated with IT experts during the last few years in order to enhance artistic pieces embedding AR technology, leading to the emergence of interesting collaborations between artists and engineers, computer scientists, architects, etc. The resulting works can be referred as AR Art. However, the interdisciplinary work behind these collaborations is usually not addressed. The aim of this paper is to review some of the reported AR Art work since the AR term was first coined in 1990, focusing on collaborations between different disciplines, especially during the early years, where art and technology became one. Additionally, the author reports her own experience in contributing to AR Art from an interdisciplinary perspective

Interacting with Intelligent Characters in AR

In this paper, we explore interacting with virtual characters in AR along real-world environments. Our vision is that virtual characters will be able to understand the real-world environment and interact in an intelligent and realistic manner with it. For example, a character can walk around uneven stairs and slopes, or be pushed away by collisions with real-world objects like a ball. We describe how to automatically animate a new character, and imbue it’s motion with adaption to environments and reactions to perturbations from the real world

Aplicação de Realidade Aumentada como meio de Promoção do Turismo e Poesia Portuense

A Realidade Aumentada é uma tecnologia emergente que permite a junção de componentes virtuais ao mundo real. Nos últimos tempos, as plataformas móveis também se desenvolveram consideravelmente, tornando-se capazes de elas mesmas suportar câmaras. Portanto, foi possível migrar a Realidade Aumentada para os telemóveis dos utilizadores comuns. Existe uma lacuna no que toca a estudos relacionados com o uso da Realidade Aumentada em Literatura recreativa, mas vários estudos em literatura educacional provam que o uso desta tecnologia ajuda e motiva os alunos na leitura e compreensão dos textos, para além de outros impactos positivos. Também no campo do turismo, há vários estudos que mostram que a Realidade Aumentada é benéfica e que atrai mais pessoas, através de, por exemplo, criação de guias turísticos online, principalmente no turismo de património cultural. Assim sendo, pretende-se determinar se o uso da Realidade Aumentada em plataformas móveis consegue promover o Turismo e a Poesia Portuense. Para responder a essa incógnita foi desenvolvido um protótipo funcional com diversos poemas animados, relativos a vários locais do Porto. Após o seu desenvolvimento, foram convidadas várias pessoas para experimentar a aplicação e foram realizados vários inquéritos onde se questionaram quer a experiência de utilizador relativamente à aplicação em si, mas também onde se abordaram questões abertas sobre como a Realidade Aumentada, a Poesia e o Turismo promovem e se dialogam entre si.Augmented Reality is an emerging technology that allows the merging of the virtual and real world. In recent times, mobile platforms have also developed considerably, becoming capable of supporting cameras. Therefore, it was possible to migrate Augmented Reality to the mobile phones of everyday users. There isn't much data regarding the use of Augmented Reality in recreational Literature, but several studies have indicated that the use of this technology in schools helps and motivates students to read and understand texts, in addition to other positive impacts. Also, in the field of tourism, there are several studies that show that Augmented Reality is beneficial and that it attracts more people through, for example, the creation of online tourist guides, mainly in cultural heritage tourism. Therefore, it is intended to determine whether the use of Augmented Reality on mobile platforms can promote Tourism and Porto Poetry. To answer this question, a functional prototype was developed with several animated poems, related to various places in Porto. After its development, several people were invited to try the application, and several surveys were carried out where they questioned the user experience in relation to the application. The surveys also questioned through open questions, the relationships between Augmented Reality, Poetry, and Tourism and how they are promoted and communicate with each other

Augmented reality for non-rigid surfaces

Augmented Reality (AR) is the process of integrating virtual elements in reality, often by mixing computer graphics into a live video stream of a real scene. It requires registration of the target object with respect to the cameras. To this end, some approaches rely on dedicated hardware, such as magnetic trackers or infra-red cameras, but they are too expensive and cumbersome to reach a large public. Others are based on specifically designed markers which usually look like bar-codes. However, they alter the look of objects to be augmented, thereby hindering their use in application for which visual design matters. Recent advances in Computer Vision have made it possible to track and detect objects by relying on natural features. However, no such method is commonly used in the AR community, because the maturity of available packages is not sufficient yet. As far as deformable surfaces are concerned, the choice is even more limited, mainly because initialization is so difficult. Our main contribution is therefore a new AR framework that can properly augment deforming surfaces in real-time. Its target platform is a standard PC and a single webcam. It does not require any complex calibration procedure, making it perfectly suitable for novice end-users. To satisfy to the most demanding application designers, our framework does not require any scene engineering, renders virtual objects illuminated by real light, and let real elements occlude virtual ones. To meet this challenge, we developed several innovative techniques. Our approach to real-time registration of a deforming surface is based on wide-baseline feature matching. However, traditional outlier elimination techniques such as RANSAC are unable to handle the non-rigid surface's large number of degrees of freedom. We therefore proposed a new robust estimation scheme that allows both 2–D and 3–D non-rigid surface registration. Another issue of critical importance in AR to achieve realism is illumination handling, for which existing techniques often require setup procedures or devices such as reflective spheres. By contrast, our framework includes methods to estimate illumination for rendering purposes without sacrificing ease of use. Finally, several existing approaches to handling occlusions in AR rely on multiple cameras or can only deal with occluding objects modeled beforehand. Our requires only one camera and models occluding objects at runtime. We incorporated these components in a consistent and flexible framework. We used it to augment many different objects such as a deforming T-shirt or a sheet of paper, under challenging conditions, in real-time, and with correct handling of illumination and occlusions. We also used our non-rigid surface registration technique to measure the shape of deformed sails. We validated the ease of deployment of our framework by distributing a software package and letting an artist use it to create two AR applications