PROCEEDINGS OF THE IEEE SPECIAL ISSUE ON APPLICATIONS OF AUGMENTED REALITY ENVIRONMENTS 1 Augmented Reality for Construction Site Monitoring and Documentation

Abstract—Augmented Reality allows for an on-site presentation of information that is registered to the physical environment. Applications from civil engineering, which require users to process complex information, are among those which can benefit particularly highly from such a presentation. In this paper, we will describe how to use Augmented Reality (AR) to support monitoring and documentation of construction site progress. For these tasks, the staff responsible usually requires fast and comprehensible access to progress information to enable comparison to the as-built status as well as to as-planned data. Instead of tediously searching and mapping related information to the actual construction site environment, our AR system allows for the access of information right where it is needed. This is achieved by superimposing progress as well as as-planned information onto the user’s view of the physical environment. For this purpose, we present an approach that uses aerial 3D reconstruction to automatically capture progress information and a mobile AR client for on-site visualization. Within this paper, we will describe in greater detail how to capture 3D, how to register the AR system within the physical outdoor environment, how to visualize progress information in a comprehensible way in an AR overlay and how to interact with this kind of information. By implementing such an AR system, we are able to provide an overview about the possibilities and future applications of AR in the construction industry

Synchronous oceanic spreading and continental rifting in West Antarctica

Magnetic anomalies associated with new ocean crust formation in the Adare Basin off north-western Ross Sea (43 – 26 Ma) can be traced directly into the Northern Basin that underlies the adjacent morphological continental shelf, implying a continuity in the emplacement of oceanic crust. Steep gravity gradients along the margins of the Northern Basin, particularly in the east, suggest that little extension and thinning of continental crust occurred before it ruptured and the new oceanic crust formed, unlike most other continental rifts and the Victoria Land Basin further south. A pre-existing weak crust and localisation of strain by strike slip faulting are proposed as the factors allowing the rapid rupture of continental crust

Electrical structure across a major ice-covered fault belt in northern Victoria Land (East Antarctica)

A Geomagnetic Depth Sounding profile was performed across the glaciated Rennick Graben and the adjacent fault-bounded terranes of northern Victoria Land in East Antarctica. Induction arrows analysis and a 2D inversion model provide a unique deep electrical resistivity window beneath these fault zones. The electrical resistivity break across the Lanterman Fault is apparently restricted to the upper crust, suggesting that this strike-slip fault may not represent a deep lithospheric suture. Further east, a westward-dipping conductor is traced to a depth of 40 km beneath the Robertson Bay Terrane. It may image a remnant of the paleo-Pacific oceanic plate, which subducted beneath the Bowers Terrane. Within the Wilson Terrane, the Rennick Graben is an upper-crust resistive block. The Rennick Graben lacks a deep crustal or upper mantle conductor, in contrast to several continental rifts. However, similar resistive lower crust underlies some other major strike-slip fault belts

DeepMatrix - An Open Technology Based Virtual Environment System, ASU-CSE-TR-103098, The Visual Computer Journal, vienna.eas.asu.edu/wagner/academic/ papers/deepmatrix.html

In this paper we present DeepMatrix, a virtual environment system based on two open technologies, Java and the Virtual Reality Modeling Language (VRML). The system is designed for use on current consumer hardware and requires only a standard Web browser with VRML plug-in. Due to a lean client – server implementation, system performance is superior to comparable approaches and easily extensible. This paper also introduces authoring for Deep-Matrix environments and discusses results drawn from a large experimental implementation of widely varying and interconnected virtual worlds

The Nivlisen, an Antarctic ice shelf in Dronning Maud Land: geodetic-glaciological results from a combined analysis of ice thickness, ice surface height and ice flow observations

Extensive observations on Nivlisen, an ice shelf at Antarctica's Atlantic coast, are analysed and combined to achieve a new-quality description of its complex glaciological regime. We generate models of ice thickness (primarily from ground-penetratingradar), ellipsoidal ice surface height (primarily from ERS-1 satellite altimetry), freeboard height (by utilising precise sea surface information), and ice flow velocity(from ERS-1/2 SAR interferometry and GPS measurements). Accuracy assessmentsare included. Exploiting the hydrostatic equilibrium relation we infer the 'apparent air layer thickness' as a useful measure for a glacier's density deviation from a pure ice body. This parameter exhibits a distinct spatial variation (ranging from 2 m to 16 m) which we attribute to the transition from an ablation areato an accumulation area. We compute mass flux and mass balance parameters on a local and areally integrated scale. The combined effect of bottom mass balance and temporal change averaged over an essential part of Nivlisen is -654±170 kgm2a-1 which suggests bottom melting processes to dominate. We discuss our results in view of temporal ice mass changes (including remarks on historical observations),basal processes, near-surface processes, and ice-flow dynamical features. The questionfor temporal changes remains open from the data at hand, and we recommendfurther observations and analyses for its solution