Research Focus

Increasingly it is becoming desirable to augment one’s view of the real world with context-specific information. For years, pilots have employed heads-up-displays (HUDs) to overlay instrumentation/targeting information onto their view of the external world. Today, for the first time, it is becoming possible to extend the HUD concept to other mobile environments. Augmented reality (AR) is a technology in which a user’s view of the real world is enhanced or augmented with additional information generated by a computer. This enhancement may consist of virtual artifacts precisely registered onto the geometry of the working environment, or a display of non-geometric information about existing real objects. AR allows a user to work with and examine real 3-D objects while receiving additional information about those objects or the task at hand.

By exploiting people’s visual and spatial skills, AR brings information into the user’s real world. This is in contrast to virtual reality (VR) in which the user is completely immersed in an artificial world and cut off from the outside world. Using AR technology, users can instead interact with a mixed virtual and real world in a natural way.

This project proposes to address some of the current shortcomings of VR and explore new applications testing in a newly created AR research laboratory. In particular, research will focus on the application and integration of technologies rather than core hardware issues related to tracking, head-mounted-displays (HMDs), or mobile computers.

Background and Challenges

Realistic merging of virtual objects with a real scene requires that objects behave in physically plausible manners when they are manipulated, i.e., they occlude or are occluded by real objects; they are not able to move through other objects; and they are shadowed or indirectly illuminated by other objects while also casting shadows themselves. To enforce such physical interaction constraints between real and virtual objects, the AR system needs to have substantial knowledge of the physical scene.

In order to combine real and virtual worlds seamlessly so that the virtual objects align well with the real ones, researchers need precise models and sensing of the user’s environment. It is essential to determine the location and optical properties of the viewer and the display, i.e., researchers need to calibrate all devices, combine all the local coordinate systems centered on the devices and objects in the scene in a global coordinate system, register models of all 3-D objects of interest with their counterparts in the scene, and track them over time when the user moves and interacts with the scene. As part of this project, researchers will develop such models for the AR room along with a scalable methodology/technology applicable to entire buildings as well as outdoor scenes.

Project Overview

Initial efforts will focus on constructing a state-of-the-art fully tracked AR room using the new large area tracking system from InterSense; IS-900. In this room, researchers will explore two things: registration of static information on stationary objects (i.e., labels on equipment distributed throughout the room) and the integration of virtual-moving objects in an AR world. Researchers will use see-through HMD technology with well-developed static 3-D maps of the real-world room and the objects within it. In parallel with this project, Georgia Tech’s College of Computing is developing an outdoor AR system to study spatiotemporal registration errors due to tracking inaccuracies. Researchers will collaborate and share technology with the College of Computing throughout the project.

Integrating state-of-the-art, commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) equipment, researchers intend to construct a room-sized indoor mobile AR environment. Using a wearable computer, a COTS tracking system, a see-through HMD, and a detailed model of the environment and objects within it, researchers will create several prototype applications with near-term market potential for the poultry industry.

Future Directions

Successful completion of this project will put Georgia Tech in a very elite class of institutions with facilities and capabilities of this caliber. This effort will also put Georgia Tech at the forefront of worldwide AR research while at the same time providing already identified and future sponsors a chance to experience the concepts and applications possible with AR. With the completion of the indoor mobile AR laboratory, researchers will be able to demonstrate working prototypes.