Augmented reality

Augmented reality

Augmented reality is a live direct and indirect view of a physical, real-world environment whose elements are augmented by computer-generated sensory input such as sound, video, graphics or GPS data. It is interrelated to a more general concept called mediated reality, in which a view of reality is modified by a computer. As a result, the technology functions by enhancing one’s current observation of reality. By contrast, virtual reality replaces the real world with a simulated one. Augmentation is conventionally in real-time and in semantic context through environmental elements, such as sports scores on TV during a match. With the help of advanced AR technology, the information about the surrounding real world of the user becomes interactive and digitally manipulable.

How augmented reality works

On the spectrum between virtual reality, which creates immersive, computer-generated environments, and the real world,/ augmented reality is closer to the real world. Augmented realities add graphics, sounds, haptic feedback and smell to the natural world as it exists. Both video games and cell phones are driving the progress of augmented reality. Everybody from tourists,/ to soldiers, to someone looking for the closest subway stop can now benefit from the ability to place computer-generated graphics in their field of vision.

Technology used in augmented reality

Hardware technology

• Display
• Head-mounted
• Eyeglasses
• Hud
• Contact lenses
• Virtual retinal display
• Eye Tap
• Handheld
• Spatial
• Tracking
• Input devices
• Computer

Software and algorithms

A key measure of AR systems is how realistically they integrate augmentations with the real world. The software must obtain real world coordinates, free from the camera, from camera images. That process is called image registration which uses different methods of computer vision, generally related to video tracking. Many computer vision methods of augmented reality are inherited from visual odometry. Usually, those methods consist of two parts.

First identify interest points, or fiducial markers, or optical flow in the camera pictures. The first stage can apply feature detection methods like corner detection, blob detection, edge detection or thresholding and other image processing methods. The second stage restores a real world coordinate system from the data obtained in the first stage. Augmented Reality Markup Language (ARML) is a data standard developed by the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC),  which consists of an XML grammar to explain the location and appearance of virtual objects in the scene, as well as ECMA Script bindings to permit dynamic access to properties of virtual objects.

To allow rapid development of Augmented Reality Application, some software development kits (SDK) have emerged. A few SDK such as CloudRidAR leverage cloud computing used for performance improvement.

Application- Augmented Reality

• Literature
• Archaeology
• Architecture
• Visual art
• Commerce
• Education
• Search and rescue
• Video games
• Industrial design
• Medical
• Spatial immersion and interaction
• Military
• Navigation
• Workplace
• Broadcast and Live Events
• Tourism and sightseeing
• Tourism and sightseeing
• Translation
• Music