Augmented Reality Ar Is A Live Media Essay

increase Reality Ar Is A Live Media EssayHardware comp adeptnts for increase trueity are processor, give away, sensors and input spins. in advance(p)-day industrious computing braids like smartphones and t able-bodiedt figurers contain these elements which often embroil a camera and MEMS sensors such as accelerometer, GPS, and solid state compass, making them qualified AR platforms.8editDisplayVarious technologies are use in Augmented Reality r blockadeering including optical projection corpses, monitors, hand held gizmos, and display organizations worn on ones person.editHead-mountedA head-mounted display (HMD) is a display device paired to a headset such as a harness or helmet. HMDs government agency images of both the visible institution and virtual objects over the substance absubstance abusers field of view. Modern HMDs often implement sensors for six degrees of freedom monitoring that allow the system to align virtual tuition to the physical world and adjust accordingly with the users head movements.91011 HMDs brook abide users immersive, mobile and collaborative AR experiences.12editEyeglassesAR displays sess be rendered on devices resembling eyeglasses. Versions admit eye wear that employ cameras to intercept the real world view and re-display its increase view by dint of the eye pieces13 and devices in which the AR imagery is projected through or reflected off the get ups of the eye wear lens pieces.141516editContact lensesContact lenses that display AR imaging are in development. These bionic contact lenses might contain the elements for display embedded into the lens including commixd circuitry, LEDs and an antenna for wireless intercourse.17181920 An former(a)wise version of contact lenses, in development for the U.S. Military, is intentional to function with AR spectacles, allowing soldiers to focus on close-to-the-eye AR images on the spectacles and distant real world objects at the same time.2122editVirtual retinal d isplayA virtual retinal display (VRD) is a personal display device under development at the University of Washingtons Human Interface Technology laboratoryoratory. With this technology, a display is s idlerned directly onto the retina of a viewers eye. The viewer incurs what appears to be a conventional display floating in space in front of them.23editEyeTapThe EyeTap (also know as Generation-2 Glass24) captures rays of light that would otherwise pass through the center of a lens of an eye of the wearer, and substituted separately ray of light for synthetic computer-controlled light. The Generation-4 Glass24 (Laser EyeTap) is similar to the VRD (i.e. it uses a computer controlled laser light source) except that it also has infinite depth of focus and causes the eye itself to, in effect, function as both a camera and a display, by way of exact alignment with the eye, and resynthesis (in laser light) of rays of light entering the eye.25editHandheldHandheld displays employ a small d isplay that fits in a users hand. All handheld AR solutions to date opt for photo enamor-through. Initially handheld AR employed fiduciary markers,26 and later GPS units and MEMS sensors such as digital compasses and six degrees of freedomaccelerometer-gyroscope. Today SLAM markerless trackers such as PTAM are starting to come into use. Handheld display AR promises to be the first commercialized success for AR technologies. The two main advantages of handheld AR is the portable nature of handheld devices and ubiquitous nature of camera phones. The disadvantages are the physical constraints of the user having to hold the handheld device verboten in front of them at all times as well as distorting effect of classically wide-angled mobile phone cameras when compared to the real world as viewed through the eye.27editSpatialSpatial Augmented Reality (SAR) augments real world objects and scenes without the use of special displays such as monitors, head mounted displays or hand-held de vices. SAR makes use of digital projectors to display graphical culture onto physical objects. The key difference in SAR is that the display is disjunct from the users of the system. Because the displays are not associated with each user, SAR scales naturally up to groups of users, thus allowing for collocated collaboration in the midst of users. SAR has several advantages over traditional head-mounted displays and handheld devices. The user is not demand to carry equipment or wear the display over their eyes. This makes spatial AR a good flockdidate for collaborative dissemble, as the users base see each others faces. A system can be used by multiple pile at the same time without each having to wear a head-mounted display.Examples include shader lamps, mobile projectors, virtual tables, and smart projectors. Shader lamps mimic and augment pragmatism by projecting imagery onto neutral objects, providing the opportunity to enhance the objects appearance with materials of a unbiased unit- a projector, camera, and sensor. Handheld projectors further this goal by enabling cluster configurations of environment sensing, reducing the need for additional peripheral sensing.2829Other tangible applications include table and wall projections. One such innovation, the Extended Virtual Table, separates the virtual from the real by including beam-splitter mirrors attached to the ceiling at an adjustable angle.30 Virtual showcases, which employ beam-splitter mirrors together with multiple graphics displays, provide an interactive means of simultaneously engaging with the virtual and the real.3132 Altogether, current augmented public display technology can be applied to improve design and visualization, or function as scientific simulations and tools for education or entertainment. Many to a greater extent implementations and configurations make spatial augmented reality display an increasingly attractive interactive alternative.11Spatial AR does not suffer from t he limited display resolution of current head-mounted displays and portable devices. A projector based display system can simply incorporate more projectors to expand the display area. Where portable devices have a small window into the world for drawing, a SAR system can display on any number of surfaces of an indoor setting at once. The drawbacks, however, are that SAR systems of projectors do not work so well in sunlight and also require a surface on which to project the computer-generated graphics. Augmentations cannot simply hang in the air as they do with handheld and HMD-based AR. The tangible nature of SAR, though, makes this an ideal technology to support design, as SAR supports both a graphical visualisation and passive haptic sensation for the end users. People are able to touch physical objects, and it is this process that provides the passive haptic sensation.7333435editTrackingModern mobile augmented reality systems use one or more of the following tracking technologie s digital cameras and/or other optical sensors, accelerometers, GPS, gyroscopes, solid state compasses, RFID and wireless sensors. These technologies offer varying levels of accuracy and precision. or so important is the position and orientation of the users head. Tracking the users hand(s) or a handheld input device can provide a 6DOF interaction technique.36editInput devicesTechniques include speech recognition systems that translate a users spoken words into computer instructions and gesture recognition systems that can interpret a users personify movements by visual detection or from sensors embedded in a peripheral device such as a wand, stylus, pointer, glove or other body wear.37383940editComputerThe computer analyzes the sensed visual and other data to synthesize and position augmentations.editSoftware and algorithmsA key measure of AR systems is how realistically they integrate augmentations with the real world. The computer software must derive real world coordinates, i ndependent from the camera, from camera images. That process is called image registration which uses different methods of computer vision, mostly related to to video tracking.4142 Many computer vision methods of augmented reality are inherited from visual odometry. Usually those methods consist of two parts.First detect kindle points, or fiduciary markers, or optical flow in the camera images. First stage can use feature detection methods like box seat detection, blob detection, edge detection or thresholding and/or other image processing methods.4344 The second stage restores a real world coordinate system from the data obtained in the first stage. Some methods assume objects with cognise geometry (or fiduciary markers) present in the scene. In some(prenominal) of those cases the scene 3D structure should be precalculated beforehand. If part of the scene is unknown simultaneous topical anaestheticization and mapping (SLAM) can map relative positions. If no teaching nearly s cene geometry is available, structure from action methods like bundle adjustment are used. Mathematical methods used in the second stage include projective (epipolar) geometry, geometric algebra, rotation representation with exponential map, kalman and share filters, non livestockar optimization, robust statistics.editApplicationsAugmented reality has umteen applications, and many areas can benefit from the usage of AR technology. AR was initially used for military, industrial, and medical applications, precisely was soon applied to commercial and entertainment areas as well.45editArchaeologyAR can be used to aid archaeological research, by augmenting archaeological features onto the modern landscape, enabling archaeologists to formulate conclusions astir(predicate) site placement and configuration.46Another application given to AR in this field is the possibility for users to rebuild ruins, buildings, or as yet landscapes as they formerly existed.47editArchitectureAR can aid in visualizing building projects. Computer-generated images of a structure can be superimposed into a real life local view of a property before the physical building is constructed there. AR can also be employed within an architects work space, rendering into their view animated 3D visualizations of their 2D drawings. Architecture sight-seeing can be enhanced with AR applications allowing users covering a buildings exterior to virtually see through its walls, viewing its interior objects and layout.4849editArtAR technology has helped disabled individuals create art by using eye tracking to translate a users eye movements into drawings on a screen out.50 An item such as a commemorative coin can be designed so that when scanned by an AR-enabled device it displays additional objects and layers of information that were not visible in a real world view of it.5152editCommerceViewAR BUTLERS App Placing furniture using ARAR can enhance product previews such as allowing a customer to view whats inside a products packaging without opening it.53 AR can also be used as an aid in selecting products from a catalog or through a kiosk. Scanned images of products can activate views of additional content such as customization options and additional images of the product in its use.5455 AR is used to integrate print and video marketing. Printed marketing material can be designed with certain stir up images that, when scanned by an AR enabled device using image recognition, activate a video version of the promotional material.565758editEducationAugmented reality applications can full complement a standard curriculum. Text, graphics, video and audio can be superimposed into a students real time environment. Textbooks, flashcards and other educational reading material can contain embedded markers that, when scanned by an AR device, produce supplementary information to the student rendered in a multimedia format.596061 Students can participate interactively with computer generat ed simulations of diachronic events, exploring and learning details of each significant area of the event site.62 AR can aide students in understanding chemistry by allowing them to visualize the spatial structure of a molecule and interact with a virtual model of it that appears, in a camera image, positioned at a marker held in their hand.63 Augmented reality technology also permits learning via remote collaboration, in which students and instructors not at the same physical location can share a commonalty virtual learning environment populated by virtual objects and learning materials and interact with another within that setting.64editEveryday30 years of Augmediated Reality in everyday life.Since the 1970s and early on 1980s, Steve Mann has been developing technologies meant for everyday use i.e. horizontal across all applications rather than a specific vertical market. Examples include Manns EyeTap digital Eye Glass, a general-purpose seeing aid that does dynamic-range manag ement (HDR vision) and overlays, underlays, simultaneous augmentation and diminishment (e.g. diminishing the electric arc succession looking at a weld torch).65editIndustrial designAR can help industrial designers experience a products design and operation before completion. Volkswagen uses AR for comparing calculated and real(a) crash test imagery.66 AR can be used to visualize and modify a car body structure and engine layout. AR can also be used to compare digital mock-ups with physical mock-ups for efficiently generateing discrepancies between them.6768editMedicalAugmented Reality can provide the surgeon with information, which are otherwise hidden, such as present the heartbeat rate, the blood pressure, the state of the patients organ, etc. In particular AR can be used to let the doctor look inside the patient by combining one source of images such as an X-ray with another such as video. This helps the doctor to identify the problem with the patient in a more intuitive way than looking at only type of image data. This come works in a similar as the technicians doing maintenance work.Examples include a virtual X-ray view based on prior imagination or on real time images from ultrasound and confocal microscopy probes69 or visualizing the position of a tumor in the video of an endoscope.70 AR can enhance viewing a fetus inside a mothers womb.71 See also Mixed reality.editMilitaryIn combat, AR can serve as a networked communication system that renders useful battlefield data onto a soldiers goggles in real time. From the soldiers viewpoint, people and various objects can be marked with special indicators to reproach of potential dangers. Virtual maps and 360 view camera imaging can also be rendered to aid a soldiers navigation and battlefield perspective, and this can be transmittable to military leaders at a remote command center.72editNavigationAugmented reality map on iPhoneAR can augment the dominance of navigation devices. Information can be di splayed on an automobiles windshield indicating destination directions and meter, weather, terrain, road conditions and traffic information as well as alerts to potential hazards in their path.737475 Aboard maritime vessels, AR can allow bridge watch-standers to continuously monitor important information such as a ships heading and urge while moving throughout the bridge or performing other tasks.76editOffice workplaceAR can help facilitate collaboration among distributed police squad members in a work force via conferences with real and virtual participants. AR tasks can include brainstorming and discussion fittingings utilizing common visualization via touch screen tables, interactive digital whiteboards, shared design spaces, and distributed control rooms.777879editSports and entertainmentAR has become common in sports telecasting. Sports and entertainment venues are provided with see-through and overlay augmentation through tracked camera feeds for enhanced viewing by the aud ience. Examples include the yellow first down line seen in television broadcasts of American football games showing the line the offensive team must cross to receive a first down. AR is also used in association with football and other sporting events to show commercial advertisements overlaid onto the view of the playing area. Sections of rugby fields and cricket pitches also display sponsored images. Swimming telecasts often add a line across the lanes to indicate the position of the current record holder as a break away proceeds to allow viewers to compare the current race to the best performance. Other examples include hockey puck tracking and annotations of racing car performance and snooker ball trajectories. 4180AR can enhance design and theater performances. For example, artists can allow listeners to augment their listening experience by adding their performance to that of other bands/groups of users.818283The gaming industry has benefited a lot from the development of thi s technology. A number of games have been developed for prepared indoor environments. Early AR games also include AR air hockey, collaborative combat against virtual enemies, and an AR-enhanced family games. A significant number of games incorporate AR in them and the introduction of the smartphone has made a bigger impact.8485editTask supportComplex tasks such as assembly, maintenance, and surgery can be simplified by inserting additional information into the field of view. For example, labels can be displayed on parts of a system to straighten out operating instructions for a mechanic who is performing maintenance on the system.8687 Assembly lines gain many benefits from the usage of AR. In addition to Boeing, BMW and Volkswagen are known for incorporating this technology in their assembly line to improve their manufacturing and assembly processes.888990 Big machines are difficult to maintain because of the multiple layers or structures they have. With the use of AR the workers can complete their job in a much easier way because AR permits them to look through the machine as if it was with x-ray, pointing them to the problem right away.91editTourism and travel toAugmented reality applications can enhance a users experience when traveling by providing real time informational displays regarding a location and its features, including comments made by antecedent visitors of the site. AR applications allow tourists to experience simulations of historical events, places and objects by rendering them into their current view of a landscape.929394 AR applications can also present location information by audio, announcing features of interest at a particular site as they become visible to the user.9596editTranslationAR systems can interpret foreign text on signs and menus and, in a users augmented view, re-display the text in the users language. Spoken words of a foreign language can be translated and displayed in a users view as printed subtitlesHow Augmented Rea lity WorksVideo games have been entertaining us for nearly 30 years, ever since Pong was introduced to arcades in the early 1970s. Computer graphics have become much more sophisticated since then, and game graphics are pushing the barriers of photorealism. Now, researchers and engineers are pulling graphics out of your television screen or computer display and integrating them into real-world environments. This new technology, called augmented reality, blurs the line between whats real and whats computer-generated by enhancing what we see, hear, feel and smell.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 reality adds graphics, sounds, haptic feedback and smell to the natural world as it exists. Both video games and cubicle phones are driving the development of augmented reality. Everyone from tourists, to soldiers, to someone looking for the closest sub way stop can now benefit from the ability to place computer-generated graphics in their field of vision.Augmented reality is changing the way we view the world or at least the way its users see the world. stick out yourself walking or driving down the street. With augmented-reality displays, which founder alone eventually look much like a normal pair of glasses, informative graphics depart appear in your field of view, and audio volition coincide with whatever you see. These enhancements will be refreshed continually to reflect the movements of your head. Similar devices and applications already exist, in particular on smartphones like the iPhone.In this article, well take a look at where augmented reality is now and where it may be headed soon.Augmenting Our WorldThe sanctioned idea of augmented reality is to superimpose graphics, audio and other sensory enhancements over a real-world environment in real time. Sounds pretty simple. Besides, havent television networks been d oing that with graphics for decades? However, augmented reality is more advanced than any technology youve seen in television broadcasts, although some new TV effects come close, such as RACEf/x and the super-imposed first down line on televised U.S. football games, both created by Sportvision. But these systems display graphics for only one point of view. Next-generation augmented-reality systems will display graphics for each viewers perspective.Some of the most exciting augmented-reality work is taking place in research labs at universities around the world. In February 2009, at the TED conference, Pattie Maes and Pranav Mistry presented their augmented-reality system, which they developed as part of MIT Media Labs Fluid Interfaces Group. They call it SixthSense, and it relies on some basic components that are found in many augmented reality systemsCameraSmall projectorSmartphoneMirrorThese components are strung together in a lanyardlike apparatus that the user wears around his n eck. The user also wears four benighted caps on the fingers, and these caps are used to manipulate the images that the projector emits.SixthSense is remarkable because it uses these simple, off-the-shelf components that cost around $350. It is also notable because the projector essentially turns any surface into an interactive screen. Essentially, the device works by using the camera and mirror to examine the surrounding world, feeding that image to the phone (which processes the image, gathers GPS coordinates and pulls data from the Internet), and then projecting information from the projector onto the surface in front of the user, whether its a wrist, a wall, or even a person. Because the user is wearing the camera on his chest, SixthSense will augment whatever he looks at for example, if he picks up a can of soup in a grocery store, SixthSense can find and project onto the soup information intimately its ingredients, price, nutritional value even customer reviews.By using his capped fingers Pattie Maes says even fingers with different colors of nail polish would work a user can perform actions on the projected information, which are then picked up by the camera and processed by the phone. If he regards to know more about that can of soup than is projected on it, he can use his fingers to interact with the projected image and learn about, say, competing brands. SixthSense can also recognize labyrinthian gestures draw a circle on your wrist and SixthSense projects a watch with the current time.Mistry demonstrates SixthSensePhoto courtesy Sam Ogden, Pranav Mistry, MIT Media LabThe SixthSense augmented reality system lets you project a phone pad onto your hand and phone a friend without removing the phone from your pocket. See more gadget pictures.Photo courtesy Lynn Barry, Pranav Mistry, MIT Media LabAugmented Reality on Cell PhonesWhile it may be some time before you buy a device like SixthSense, more primitive versions of augmented reality are alrea dy here on some cell phones, particularly in applications for the iPhone and phones with the Android operating system. In the Netherlands, cell phone owners can download an application called Layar that uses the phones camera and GPS capabilities to gather information about the surrounding area. Layar then shows information about restaurants or other sites in the area, overlaying this information on the phones screen. You can even point the phone at a building, and Layar will tell you if any companies in that building are hiring, or it might be able to find photos of the building on Flickr or to locate its history on Wikipedia.Layar isnt the only application of its type. In August 2009, some iPhone users were surprised to find an augmented-reality easter egg hidden within the Yelp application. Yelp is known for its user reviews of restaurants and other businesses, but its hidden augmented-reality component, called Monocle, takes things one flavor further. Just start up the Yelp app , shake your iPhone 3GS three times and Monocle activates. Using your phones GPS and compass, Monocle will display information about local restaurants, including ratings and reviews, on your cell phone screen. You can touch one of the listings to find out more about a particular restaurant. there are other augmented reality apps out there for the iPhone and other similar phones and many more in development. Urbanspoon has much of the same functionality as Yelps Monocle. Then theres Wikitude, which finds information from Wikipedia about sites in the area. Underlying most of these applications are a phones GPS and compass by knowing where you are, these applications can make sure to offer information relevant to you. Were dormant not quite at the stage of full-on image recognition, but trust us, people are working on it.Weve looked at some of the existing forms of augmented reality. On the next page, well examine some of the other applications of the technology, such as in video gam es and military hardwareAn iPhone user displays the augmented reality app Monocle, which combines the phones camera view with tiny tags indicating the names, distances and user ratings of nearby bars, restaurants and more.AP Photo/Marcio Jose SanchezAugmented Reality in Video Games and the MilitaryVideo game companies are quickly hopping aboard the augmented-reality locomotive. A company called Total Immersion makes software that applies augmented reality to baseball cards. Simply go online, download the Total Immersion software and then hold up your baseball card to a webcam. The software recognizes the card (and the player on it) and then displays related video on your computer screen. Move the card in your hands make sure to keep it in view of the camera and the 3-D figure on your screen will perform actions, such as throwing a ball at a target.Total Immersions efforts are just the beginning. In the next couple of years, well see games that take augmented reality out into the streets. Consider a scavenger-hunt game that uses virtual objects. You could use your phone to place tokens around town, and participants would then use their phones (or augmented-reality enabled goggles) to find these invisible objects.Demos of many games of this order already exist. Theres a human Pac-Man game that allows users to chase after each other in real life while wearing goggles that make them look like characters in Pac-Man.Arcane Technologies, a Canadian company, has sold augmented-reality devices to the U.S. military. The company produces a head-mounted display the sort of device that was supposed to bring us virtual reality that superimposes information on your world. Consider a squad of soldiers in Afghanistan, performing reconnaissance on an competition hideout. An AR-enabled head-mounted display could overlay blueprints or a view from a satellite or overheard drone directly onto the soldiers field of vision.Now that weve established some of the many current and burgeoning uses of augmented reality, lets take a look at the technologys limitations and what the future day holds.Augmented reality can breathe a little life into your sports traffic cards.Photo courtesy Total ImmersionLimitations and the Future of Augmented RealityAugmented reality still has some challenges to overcome. For example, GPS is only accurate to within 30 feet (9 meters) and doesnt work as well indoors, although improved image recognition technology may be able to help source Metz.People may not want to rely on their cell phones, which have small screens on which to superimpose information. For that reason, wearable devices like SixthSense or augmented-reality capable contact lenses and glasses will provide users with more convenient, expansive views of the world around them. Screen real estate will no longer be an issue. In the near future, you may be able to play a real-time strategy game on your computer, or you can invite a friend over, put on your AR glasses, an d play on the tabletop in front of you.There is such a thing as too much information. Just as the CrackBerry phenomenon and Internet dependence are concerns, an overreliance on augmented reality could mean that people are missing out on whats right in front of them. Some people may prefer to use their AR iPhone applications rather than an experienced tour guide, even though a tour guide may be able to offer a level of interaction, an experience and a personal touch unavailable in a computer program. And there are times when a real plaque on a building is preferable to a virtual one, which would be accessible only by people with certain technologies.There are also privacy concerns. Image-recognition software coupled with AR will, quite soon, allow us to point our phones at people, even strangers, and instantly see information from their Facebook, Twitter, Amazon, LinkedIn or other online profiles. With most of these services people willingly put information about themselves online, b ut it may be an unwelcome shock to meet someone, only to have him instantly know so much about your life and background.Despite these concerns, imagine the possibilities you may learn things about the city youve lived in for years just by pointing your AR-enabled phone at a nearby park or building. If you work in construction, you can save on materials by using virtual markers to designate where a beam should go or which structural support to inspect. Paleontologists working in shifts to assemble a dinosaur skeleton could leave virtual notes to team members on the bones themselves, artists could produce virtual graffiti and doctors could overlay a digital image of a patients X-rays onto a mannequin for added realism.The future of augmented reality is clearly bright, even as it already has found its way into our cell phones and video game systems. For more information about the way out and where its headed, take a look at the links on the next pageAugmented RealityAugmented reality (AR) is a live, direct or indirect, view of a physical, real-world environment whose elements are augmented by computer-gener