Mobile Collaborative Augmented Reality (FWF Project P14470-INF)

Starting from a successful collaboration in the past - the collaborative augmented reality environment "Studierstube" has been developed by the project partners within FWF project P12074-MAT - this project aims at the development of a new mobile collaborative augmented reality system. We plan to create a mobile AR kit consisting of a wearable computer, wireless networking, 3D display, interaction and localization devices. This system will deliver the following key contributions: * A mobile AR user interface which not only allows self-contained interaction with location independent and location dependent 3D data, but also docking into a stationary "Studierstube" AR environment. * Support for collaborative mobile AR by establishing instant networked sessions of users in a casual meeting. Users will be able to interact with each other and with virtual 3D objects, which each user brings along into the meeting. * A new concept called qualitative AR tracking. Previous approaches ("metric AR") require perfect 6 DoF registration with the environment, which is not strictly necessary for many mobile situations. Instead, hybrid optical/inertial/GPS tracking is used to obtain a body-stabilized reference system.