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Augmented Reality
An Emerging Technologies Guide to AR
By Gregory Kipper, Joseph Rampolla Elsevier Science
Copyright © 2013 Elsevier, Inc.
All rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-59749-734-3
Excerpt
CHAPTER 1
What Is Augmented Reality?
INFORMATION IN THIS CHAPTER:
• What is Augmented Reality?
• How Augmented Reality Works
• A History of Augmented Reality
• Augmented Reality of Today
• The Differences between Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality
• Challenges with Augmented Reality
• The Opportunities for Augmented Reality
THE DEFINITION OF AUGMENTED REALITY
Augmented Reality (AR) is a variation of a Virtual Environment (VE), or Virtual Reality (VR) as it is more commonly called. Virtual Reality technologies completely immerse a user inside a synthetic environment and while immersed, the user cannot see the real world around him. In contrast, Augmented Reality is taking digital or computer generated information, whether it be images, audio, video, and touch or haptic sensations and overlaying them over in a real-time environment. Augmented Reality technically can be used to enhance all five senses, but its most common present-day use is visual. Unlike Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality allows the user to see the real world, with virtual objects superimposed upon or composited with the real world. Therefore, AR supplements reality, rather than completely replacing it as depicted in Figure 1.1 Augmented Reality can be thought of as the blend, or the "middle ground," between the completely synthetic and the completely real.
One of the easiest examples is a heads-up display, or HUD, used by fighter pilots. It is likely we have all seen examples of a HUD in movies or television documentaries. A HUD gives the pilot a digital overlay that shows an artificial horizon, the digital altitude, digital speed, and other information while looking out the cockpit window as shown in Figure 1.2 Another example that has appeared in the past few years is the artificial "first down" line Figure 1.3 that helps football viewers watching the game on TV know how far the offensive team needs to go to get a first down. These examples are somewhat straightforward compared to some of what we will explore in the rest of this book.
Augmented Reality can also be used to remove real-world information, not just add to it. A basic example is this the Vulcan Tourism Transporter App that creates the transporter "beaming" effect from the Star Trek series. A person sitting or object put in front of the transporter pad can be dematerialized or rematerialized using Augmented Reality as depicted in Figure 1.4.
Building on the basic definition and descriptions of AR's capabilities let us expand a bit further and outline the three characteristics that need to be present for true Augmented Reality:
1. AR combines real and virtual information.
2. AR is interactive in real time.
3. AR operates and is used in a 3D environment.
Augmented Reality really allows for information to be presented visually that the user would not otherwise be able to detect. Just as there are millions of bits of information being transmitted all around us right now on some wireless frequency or another, we as people would be totally unaware of it without the mobile phones, tablets, and laptops that allow us to effectively channel the information. Augmented Reality, much like other graphical interfaces, gives us the ability to bring usable information into the visual spectrum in real time wherever we are. Augmented Reality is not just one technology. It is the combination of several technologies that work together to bring digital information into visual perception. AR is a highly compelling, virtually endless, collection of technology-assisted experiences that helps create the real-time Web.
As Gene Becker of Lightning Laboratories puts it, Augmented Reality is:
• a technology.
• a field of research.
• a vision of future computing.
• an emerging commercial industry.
• a new medium for creative expression.
Interestingly enough the same list could have, and may have, been applied to the 2D graphical user interface that became popular in the 1980s.
What AR is Not
There are more than enough examples today of digitally enhanced media, however it does not necessarily mean that all of them constitute "augmented" reality. An image altered in Photoshop, or any other type of 2D overlay, is not AR. It also does not include film or television. While movies such as "Jurassic Park" and "Avatar" feature photorealistic virtual objects seamlessly blended with a real environment in 3D, they are not interactive and thus not AR. In contrast, the football game example mentioned earlier uses a live feed and computers to create a virtual line of scrimmage on the display in real time does constitute AR, whereas a motion picture that is carefully scripted, filmed, and processed does not.
Augmented Reality is sometimes confused with "visual searching", particularly in a mobile environment. Visual searching is defined as an active scan of the visual environment for a particular object or feature among other objects or features. Programs such as Google Goggles and Nokia's Point and Find allow the user to search from their cell phones by capturing an image and finding relevant information about that image. In some ways it begins the same way AR does with "recognition" of an object and it is interactive in real time but it fails to meet the rules of actually combining real and virtual information and operating in a 3D environment.
THE COMPONENTS OF AUGMENTED REALITY
Now that we've covered the basics of what Augmented Reality is, and isn't we'll start digging a little deeper into the technology and learn about all the pieces that make AR work. There are a number of necessary components to make the whole process work as well as the different types of platforms that can be used for Augmented Reality. In Chapter Two we'll explore what makes Augmented Reality work in greater detail but for now the list below is a summary of the core components needed for both fixed and mobile environments:
Hardware:
• a computer, either a PC or a mobile device
• a monitor or display screen
• a camera
• tracking and sensing systems (GPS, compass, accelerometer)
• a network infrastructure
• a marker: markers are physical objects or places where the real and Virtual Environments are fused together. This is what the computer identifies as the place where digital information is to be presented.
Software:
• an app or program running locally
• Web services
• a content server
Augmented Reality Platforms
Now that we've touched on the necessary components here are four platforms by which Augmented Reality is used today. They are:
1. Personal Computers with Webcams: Since most PCs contain some, if not all, the needed components for viewing Augmented Reality on this platform are an obvious choice. Because of the fixed nature of the device (compared to mobile phones and tablets), a marker is placed within view of a Webcam, which shows a live feed. Once it identifies the marker, it creates the augmentation on the screen for the user to interact with as shown in Figure 1.5 This method is often used to augment magazine advertisements, business cards, baseball cards, and almost anything else that could be made into a portable marker and placed in front of the Webcam. Gaming systems such as the XBox are also starting to be used more and more for Augmented Reality.
2. Kiosks, Digital Signage, and Window Displays: Kiosks are simply stations where customers can bring items to find out more about them with Augmented Reality information. One example is the Lego Store kiosk, which displays the completed Lego set inside the box. Kiosks are also used at trade shows and conventions to give attendees a richer experience as depicted in Figure 1.6 Digital signs and window display are also used and are basically large static markers that users interact with via their mobile devices.
3. Smartphones and Tablets: The use of smartphones to access Augmented Reality content is arguably the most common method today. Smartphones can not only use their cameras and screens to identify markers they are pointed at but can also use the compass and GPS functions to augment the locations or points of interest based on relative location (Figure 1.7). Tablet computers also fall under this general platform category as many of the higher-end models on the market today have HD cameras and GPS capability.
4. AR Glasses and Head-Mounted Displays: While not yet common, AR-enabled glasses such as those made by Vuzix do exist and are available for purchase. In time, as the technology improves and prices come down, AR-enabled glasses will likely become as common as iPads and smartphones giving the wearer the option for a continuous Augmented Reality feed based on individual needs and preferences (Figure 1.8).
A BRIEF HISTORY OF AUGMENTED REALITY
There have been many talented and dedicated people who did great things with Augmented Reality with far less of a technological advantage that we enjoy in present day. The next section outlines some of those people and some of the significant events in Augmented Reality development:
1962
Morton Heilig, a cinematographer, designs a motorcycle simulator called Sensorama (Figure 1.9) which stands as one of the earliest known examples of immersive, multi-sensory technology that had visuals, sound, vibration, and smell.
1968
Ivan Sutherland creates the first Augmented Reality (and Virtual Reality) system called The Sword of Damocles (Figure 1.10). It used an optical see-through head-mounted display and was one of the earliest examples that used six degrees-of-freedom (6DOF) trackers.
1975
Videoplace, created by Myron Krueger, who is considered one of the original pioneers of Virtual Reality and interactive art created an Augmented Reality system which allowed users to interact with virtual objects for the first time (Figure 1.11).
1992
At Boeing's Computer Services' Adaptive Neural Systems Research and Development project, Tom Caudell and David Mizell are credited with coining the term "Augmented Reality." This came about from their R&D work which centered around an effort to find an easier way to help Boeing's manufacturing and engineering process which led them to design software that could overlay the positions of where certain cables in the building process were supposed to go.
1996
Jun Rekimoto develops an AR prototype called NaviCam and advances the idea of the 2D matrix marker (Figure 1.12). Markers are physical objects or places where the real and Virtual Environment are fused together. A marker is what the computer identifies as the place where digital information is to be presented. This type becomes one of the first marker systems to allow camera tracking with six degrees-of-freedom. This type of marker is still in use today.
1997
Ronald Azuma, a research leader in Augmented Reality, provides the de facto definition for AR, as identified by these three characteristics.
1. It combines real and virtual.
2. It is interactive in real time.
3. It is registered in 3D.
1999
• The company, Tota lImmersion, is founded and enters the market as the first Augmented Reality solutions provider. Total Immersion creates a product called D'Fusion, which is designed to operate across multiple platforms and then spends the next decade on research and development establishing the company as the market leader in Augmented Reality.
• Hirokazu Kato releases the ARToolKit to the open source community. This suite of tools allows for video capture in the real world to be combined with virtual objects, to include 3D graphics, and be run on any operating system. Today almost all Flash-based AR that is seen through a Web browser was made using ARToolKit.
• Hollerer, Feiner, and Pavlik develop a wearable AR system that lets users to experience AR information that is integrated with relevant outdoor locations. This system is a prelude to the AR browser.
2000
• Bruce Thomas et al. create an AR version of the popular game Quake. "AR-Quake" depicted in Figure 1.13 was a first-person Augmented Reality view of the game which incorporated a six degrees-of-freedom (6DOF) tracking system, GPS, a digital compass, and vision-based marker tracking.
(Continues...)
Excerpted from Augmented Reality by Gregory Kipper. Copyright © 2013 by Elsevier, Inc.. Excerpted by permission of Elsevier Science.
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