Utilizing sensor fusion in markerless mobile augmented reality

One of the key challenges of markerless Augmented Reality (AR) systems, where no a priori information of the environment is available, is map and scale initialization. In such systems, the scale is unknown as it is impossible to determine the scale from a sequence of images alone. Implementing scale is vital for ensuring that augmented objects are contextually sensitive to the environment they are projected upon. In this paper we demonstrate a sensor and vision fusion approach for robust and user-friendly initialization of map and scale. The map is initialized, using inbuilt accelerometers, whilst scale is initialized by the camera auto-focusing capability. The later is possible by applying the Depth From Focus (DFF) method, which was, till now, limited to high precision camera systems. The demonstrated illustrates benefits of such a system, which is running on a commercially available mobile phone Nokia N900

Playing with the artworks:engaging with art through an augmented reality game

In the majority of cases our experiences of artworks in galleries and museums is as passive observers. While this is widely accepted practice in terms of preserving the artworks it limits the engagement potential with younger visitors. In this paper we present a way of using augmented reality (AR) technology to create engaging and personal art experience for such an audience. To achieve this, we built a prototype for a treasure hunt style game where players colour a contour drawing not knowing what exactly they are colouring. However, they are told that if this coloured drawing is placed correctly, it should wrap around a 3D object (statue) or overlay a 2D canvas (picture) somewhere in the gallery. In the paper we present an evaluation of the augmented colouring aspect of the proposed game with nine K-6 children