Augmented Reality Solution Research Articles

Enriching Natural Monument with User-Generated Mobile Augmented Reality Mashup

This paper proposes a mobile augmented reality mashup for cultural heritage sites such as natural monuments. Several benefits of mobile augmented reality solutions are ideal for preserving and protecting cultural heritage sites. By presenting mobile augmented reality mashup scenarios and mobile mashup framework, we introduce how user-generated multimedia contents can be added. We present two scenarios of Mashup Viewer and Mashup Maker. In Mashup Viewer mode, visitors can create new AR contents using mashup tools for memo, Twitter, images and statistical graphs. In Mashup Maker mode, other visitors also can view the user-generated multimedia AR contents using QR codes as access points. To show feasibility of our approach in mobile platforms, we compare several detection algorithms on PC and mobile platform and report on deployment of our approach in a natural monument museum. With our proposed mashup tools, visitors to the cultural heritage sites can enjoy default AR contents provided by the site administrators and also participate as active content producers and consumers.

Programmable signal path system for magnetic tracking devices for local navigation tasks

Introduction. The article is dealing with the Magnetic Tracking signal path for measurement of objects’ positions in nearby places. The basic principle of the Magnetic Tracking method is based on measurement of magnetic induction of the reference magnetic fields and the calculation of the objects position based on it.Problem analysis. Big advantages of magnetic tracking technologies are the non-line-of-sight feature compared to optical tracking and high accuracy of long time measurement compared to inertial tracking. However, a very large signal range and significant distortions due to nearby metallic objects are serious drawbacks preventing magnetic tracking from being widely used.Selection and configuration of signal path components. Taking into account the requirements of uptoday microelectronics, in particular for the sensors of the Internet of Things, the signal path of the Magnetic Tracking sensors is implemented on the concept of System on Chip. Basic components of the signal path are software Programmable Waveform Generator, Programmable Gain Amplifiers and Programmable Mixer. Configurations of the components are provided by Application Programming Interface routines.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               Functional and model studies of the synchronous detector. Noise immune processing is based on synchronous detector. SPICE simulations and analysis of this detector are provided.Implementation of signal path of magnetic tracking. The signal converter has been implemented on the Programmable System on Chip PSoC 5LP (Cypress Semiconductor). The module CY8CKIT-059 Prototyping Kit has been used. The developed software for controlling the measurement process provides controlling the conversion mode, dynamic amplification switching, analog-to-digit converting, etc.Conclusions. The novelty of the solutions presented in the work is the combination of signal amplification dynamic switching and the noise immune processing. Reference magnetic fields are formed by actuator coils in the lowfrequency spectrum of electromagnetic waves. Signals are produced by sensor coils and are used for objects position calculation. Technologies of Magnetic Tracking are considered as high promising solutions for Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality and Internet of Things.

The Soundscape Hackathon as a Methodology to Accelerate Co-Creation of the Urban Public Space

The design of urban public spaces is typically performed by architects and urban planners, which often only focus on the visual aesthetics of the urban space. Yet, a visually pleasing public open space designed for relaxing will be underused if it sounds unpleasant. Ideally, sonic design should be integrated with visual design, a need the soundscape approach answers. The current trend of co-creating the urban space together with all stakeholders, including local residents, opens up new opportunities to account for all senses in the urban design process. Unfortunately, architects and urban planners struggle to incorporate the soundscape approach in the urban design process and to use it in the context of co-creation. In this work, a hackathon is proposed to generate creative concepts, methods and tools to co-create the urban public space. A soundscape hackathon was organized in the spring of 2019. Participants were challenged to apply their own immersive approaches or virtual and/or augmented reality solutions on selected urban soundscapes. They presented their results to colleagues in the field and to a professional jury. This paper describes the process and results of the event and shows that a hackathon is a viable approach to accelerate the co-creation of the urban public space.

The use of augmented reality in the diagnosis and treatment of autistic children: a review and a new system

This paper consists of two parts. The first presents a review of the literature on the use of augmented reality (AR) in the diagnosis and treatment of autistic children with a particular focus on the efficacy of AR in assisting autistic children who have communicative, social, sentiment, and attention deficit disorders. The review also investigated interactions between AR systems and children, taking into consideration the target behaviors that are selected from the child during treatment. Such modes were fully explored by taking into account the needs of the individual child in terms of achieving an improvement in their condition. Most significantly, the empirical information that was obtained from the reviewed works was evaluated according to some specific targeted attitudes and how each AR solution was utilized during treatment to achieve the fostering of such attitudes in order to identify the requirements for building an effective AR system. In addition, the review revealed the essential design features that can enable AR systems to achieve a high level of effectiveness in autism therapy. The review also covered the instruction that AR systems were noticed to execute, and focused on the significant characteristics that allow AR systems to accomplish degrees of efficacy in autism treatment. The review ends by classifying the various AR systems based on different criteria. The second part of the paper focuses on our new AR system as a case study. It covers the design considerations and decisions as well as the key features and appearance of the system. The paper concludes by making some recommendations for the further development of an AR system for application in the domain of child autism.

User-Centered Evaluation of an Augmented Reality-based Assistance System for Maintenance

Mobile Augmented Reality solutions are a promising technology for supporting service technicians in maintenance. The possibilities of augmenting the technicians’ field of vision with virtual information are confronted with the challenges of new forms of interaction and thus changing requirements for the design of user interfaces compared to desktop applications. The optimal interaction between humans and technology remains the decisive criterion for the development of usable interactive systems. Therefore, we have conducted a user-centered evaluation study in this paper and collected both quantitative and qualitative data. In two consecutive laboratory studies and a final field study we could show that user participation has a significant impact on the usability of the developed AR-based assistance system for the maintenance of heating, air conditioning, and cooling systems.

Comparative study of AR versus video tutorials for minor maintenance operations

Augmented Reality (AR) has become a mainstream technology in the development of solutions for repair and maintenance operations. Although most of the AR solutions are still limited to specific contexts in industry, some consumer electronics companies have started to offer pre-packaged AR solutions as alternative to video-based tutorials (VT) for minor maintenance operations. In this paper, we present a comparative study of the acquired knowledge and user perception achieved with AR and VT solutions in some maintenance tasks of IT equipment. The results indicate that both systems help users to acquire knowledge in various aspects of equipment maintenance. Although no statistically significant differences were found between AR and VT solutions, users scored higher on the AR version in all cases. Moreover, the users explicitly preferred the AR version when evaluating three different usability and satisfaction criteria. For the AR version, a strong and significant correlation was found between the satisfaction and the achieved knowledge. Since the AR solution achieved similar learning results with higher usability scores than the video-based tutorials, these results suggest that AR solutions are the most effective approach to substitute the typical paper-based instructions in consumer electronics.

Mobile AR: User Evaluation in a Cultural Heritage Context

The growing number of mobile augmented reality applications has been favoring its awareness and usage among diversified areas. Focusing on cultural heritage applications, this study presents an evaluation of a mobile augmented reality application tested at Conimbriga, an archaeological site. The prototype developed for this purpose, named DinofelisAR, allowed users to view, over 360 degrees, a majestic reconstruction of a Forum from the Roman Era superimposed over its current ruins. Thus, users were able to keep perceiving the present-day surroundings of a Roman city in ruins while, at the same time, had the possibility to explore the matching virtual model. The results presented, arising from 90 participants involved in this evaluation, praise the sense of opportunity for new augmented reality solutions targeted at cultural heritage sites.

Augmented reality in support of intelligent manufacturing – A systematic literature review

Industry increasingly moves towards digitally enabled ‘smart factories’ that utilise the internet of things (IoT) to realise intelligent manufacturing concepts like predictive maintenance or extensive machine to machine communication. A core technology to facilitate human integration in such a system is augmented reality (AR), which provides people with an interface to interact with the digital world of a smart factory. While AR is not ready yet for industrial deployment in some areas, it is already used in others. To provide an overview of research activities concerning AR in certain shop floor operations, a total of 96 relevant papers from 2011 to 2018 are reviewed. This paper presents the state of the art, the current challenges, and future directions of manufacturing related AR research through a systematic literature review and a citation network analysis. The results of this review indicate that the context of research concerning AR gets increasingly broader, especially by addressing challenges when implementing AR solutions.

Two fast prototypes of web-based augmented reality enhancement for books

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to identify a light and scalable augmented reality (AR) solution to enhance library collections. Design/methodology/approach The author first did research to identify the major obstacle in creating a scalable AR solution. Next, she explored possible workaround methods and successfully developed two prototypes that make the current Web-based AR work with ISBN barcode. Findings Libraries have adopted AR technology in recent years mainly by developing mobile applications for specific education or navigation programs. Yet a straight-forward AR solution to enhance a library's collection has not been seen. One of the obstacles lies in finding a scalable and painless solution to associate special AR objects with physical books. At title level, books already have their unique identifier – the ISBN number. Unfortunately, marker-based AR technology only accept two-dimensional (2-D) objects, not the one-dimensional (1-D) EAN barcode (or ISBN barcode) used by books, as markers for technical reasons. In this paper, the author shares her development of two prototypes to make the Web-based AR work with the ISBN barcode. With the prototypes, a user can simply scan the ISBN barcode on a book to retrieve related AR content. Research limitations/implications This paper mainly researched and experimented with Web-based AR technologies in the attempt to identify a solution that is as platform-neutral as possible, and as user-friendly as possible. Practical implications The light and platform-neutral AR prototypes discussed in this paper have the benefits of minimum cost on both the development side and the experience side. A library does not need to put any additional marker on any book to implement the AR. A user does not need to install any additional applications in his/her smartphone to experience the AR. The prototypes show a promising future where physical collections inside libraries can become more interactive and attractive by blurring the line of reality and virtuality. Social implications The paper can help initiate the discussion on applying Web-based AR technologies to library collections.

Effects of perceived interactivity of augmented reality on consumer responses: A mental imagery perspective

As the use of technological features is becoming more common in digital retailing, retailers have adopted augmented reality (AR) solutions to help consumers browse their products. This study examines dimensions of perceived interactivity after experiencing shopping with AR and investigates the relationships between perceived interactivity and mental imagery and between mental imagery and other consumer responses in a mobile shopping context. A total of 302 female online consumers in South Korea participated in a survey. After shopping cosmetic products with the AR function in a mobile app, participants completed the questionnaire. The findings reveal that the controllability and playfulness dimensions of perceived interactivity influence mental imagery, which, in turn, affects consumers' attitudes toward a product and their behavioral intentions. The relationship between perceived interactivity and mental imagery differs based on an individual's involvement level. These results provide practical insights for digital retailers in creating effective mobile shopping environments.

Co-localized augmented human and X-ray observers in collaborative surgical ecosystem.

Image-guided percutaneous interventions are safer alternatives to conventional orthopedic and trauma surgeries. To advance surgical tools in complex bony structures during these procedures with confidence, a large number of images is acquired. While image-guidance is the de facto standard to guarantee acceptable outcome, when these images are presented on monitors far from the surgical site the information content cannot be associated easily with the 3D patient anatomy. In this article, we propose a collaborative augmented reality (AR) surgical ecosystem to jointly co-localize the C-arm X-ray and surgeon viewer. The technical contributions of this work include (1) joint calibration of a visual tracker on a C-arm scanner and its X-ray source via a hand-eye calibration strategy, and (2) inside-out co-localization of human and X-ray observers in shared tracking and augmentation environments using vision-based simultaneous localization and mapping. We present a thorough evaluation of the hand-eye calibration procedure. Results suggest convergence when using 50 pose pairs or more. The mean translation and rotation errors at convergence are 5.7mm and [Formula: see text], respectively. Further, user-in-the-loop studies were conducted to estimate the end-to-end target augmentation error. The mean distance between landmarks in real and virtual environment was 10.8mm. The proposed AR solution provides a shared augmented experience between the human and X-ray viewer. The collaborative surgical AR system has the potential to simplify hand-eye coordination for surgeons or intuitively inform C-arm technologists for prospective X-ray view-point planning.

Augmented reality based approach for on-line quality assessment of polished surfaces

Augmented reality is considered one of the enabling technologies of the fourth industrial revolution, within the Industry 4.0 program and beyond. Indeed, augmented reality solutions can increase the working quality and the productivity and allow a better use of the human resources. This technology can help the operator in the industrial applications during the crucial phases of the processes. Since the quality assessment of the surfaces is recognized to be a key phase in the polishing process, in this paper we propose a novel method that exploits augmented reality to support the operators during this phase. The metrology data measured by a surface measurement system are directly projected on the polished component through an augmented reality headset worn by the operators and used to assess the quality of the worked surfaces. Rather than imagine how a certain parameter change can affect the result achieved, the information is directly there on the component’s surface. Users can see from the data where refinements are required and make better and faster decisions, which is compelling for its potential beyond industrial polishing. The proposed method is implemented and validated on an industrial cell, where the robot automatically perform the polishing task and move the head of the surface measurement system along the surface to measure the metrology parameters. Thanks to the proposed approach, the end-user and the operator can directly see on the component if the quality reached satisfies the specifications or if some parts of the surface require further refinements through additional polishing steps.

Metasurfaces for Near-Eye Augmented Reality

Augmented reality (AR) has the potential to revolutionize the way in which information is presented by overlaying virtual information onto a person's direct view of their real-time surroundings. By placing the display on the surface of the eye, a contact lens display (CLD) provides a versatile solution for compact AR. However, an unaided human eye cannot visualize patterns on the CLD simply because of the limited accommodation of the eye. Here, we introduce a holographic display technology that casts virtual information directly to the retina so that the eye sees it while maintaining the visualization of the real-world intact. The key to our design is to introduce metasurfaces to create a phase distribution that projects virtual information in a pixel-by-pixel manner. Unlike conventional holographic techniques, our metasurface-based technique is able to display arbitrary patterns using a single passive hologram. With a small form-factor, the designed metasurface empowers near-eye AR excluding the need of extra optical elements, such as a spatial light modulator, for dynamic image control.

Augmented reality technology in the manufacturing industry: A review of the last decade

The aim of this article is to analyze and review the scientific literature relating to the application of Augmented Reality (AR) technology in industry. AR technology is becoming increasingly diffuse, due to the ease of application development and the widespread use of hardware devices (mainly smartphones and tablets) able to support its adoption. Today, a growing number of applications based on AR solutions are being developed for industrial purposes. Although these applications are often little more than experimental prototypes, AR technology is proving highly flexible and is showing great potential in numerous areas (e.g., maintenance, training/learning, assembly or product design) and in industrial sectors (e.g., the automotive, aircraft or manufacturing industries). It is expected that AR systems will become even more widespread in the near future.The purpose of this review is to classify the literature on AR published from 2006 to early 2017, to identify the main areas and sectors where AR is currently deployed, describe the technological solutions adopted, as well as the main benefits achievable with this kind of technology.

Augmented reality use for cycling quality improvement

The impact of air pollution on the health of the population and the greenhouse effect determine the development of green transport modes. One is cycling. The developed a dual-use cycling route planning and management tool VeloRouter provides agent-based routing load simulation and allows each user to choose the most attractive travel time. However, during the trip, the cyclists want to get real-time information not only about the weather, but also about the terrain that would improve travel safety. One of the possible solutions is augmented reality (AR) smart glasses. It is important to develop an appropriate and sustainable AR solution, which is not possible without careful prior analysis.

Augmented Reality to Improve Surgical Simulation. Lessons Learned Towards the Design of a Hybrid Laparoscopic Simulator for Cholecystectomy.

Hybrid surgical simulators based on Augmented Reality (AR) solutions benefit from the advantages of both the box trainers and the Virtual Reality simulators. This paper reports on the results of a long development stage of a hybrid simulator for laparoscopic cholecystectomy that integrates real and the virtual components. We first outline the specifications of the AR simulator and then we explain the strategy adopted for implementing it based on a careful selection of its simulated anatomical components, and characterized by a real-time tracking of both a target anatomy and of the laparoscope. The former is tracked by means of an electromagnetic field generator, while the latter requires an additional camera for video tracking. The new system was evaluated in terms of AR visualization accuracy, realism and hardware robustness. Obtained results show that the accuracy of AR visualization is adequate for training purposes. The qualitative evaluation confirms the robustness and the realism of the simulator. The AR simulator satisfies all the initial specifications in terms of anatomical appearance, modularity, reusability, minimization of spare parts cost, and ability to record surgical errors and to track in real-time the Calot's triangle and the laparoscope. The proposed system could be an effective training tool for learning the task of identification and isolation of Calot's triangle in laparoscopic cholecystectomy. Moreover, the presented strategy could be applied to simulate other surgical procedures involving the task of identification and isolation of generic tubular structures, such as blood vessels, biliary tree and nerves, which are not directly visible.

Augmented reality‐based feedback for technician‐in‐the‐loop C‐arm repositioning

Interventional C-arm imaging is crucial to percutaneous orthopedic procedures as it enables the surgeon to monitor the progress of surgery on the anatomy level. Minimally invasive interventions require repeated acquisition of X-ray images from different anatomical views to verify tool placement. Achieving and reproducing these views often comes at the cost of increased surgical time and radiation. We propose a marker-free ‘technician-in-the-loop’ Augmented Reality (AR) solution for C-arm repositioning. The X-ray technician operating the C-arm interventionally is equipped with a head-mounted display system capable of recording desired C-arm poses in 3D via an integrated infrared sensor. For C-arm repositioning to a target view, the recorded pose is restored as a virtual object and visualized in an AR environment, serving as a perceptual reference for the technician. Our proof-of-principle findings from a simulated trauma surgery indicate that the proposed system can decrease the 2.76 X-ray images required for re-aligning the scanner with an intra-operatively recorded C-arm view down to zero, suggesting substantial reductions of radiation dose. The proposed AR solution is a first step towards facilitating communication between the surgeon and the surgical staff, improving the quality of surgical image acquisition, and enabling context-aware guidance for surgery rooms of the future.

Immersive Virtual Environments in Information Systems Research: A Review of Objects and Approaches

Innovations in the underlying technologies of virtual, augmented, and mixed reality solutions have moved immersive virtual environments from sci-fi movies to a phenomenon of great societal impact. The last decade has seen use cases that ranges into gaming, education, health care, construction and retail. Paralleling the growing practical relevance, immersive virtual environments has also attracted interested from the research community in general and in par- ticular within the field of information systems. Although this proliferation of research has the potential to significantly improve our understanding of immersive virtual environments and their impact on individual, groups, organizations and society at large, absent is the necessary step of consolidating extant research efforts. With the objective to make an inventory that can guide further investigation, we review research on immersive virtual environments in the in-formation systems discipline through a scientometric analysis of the object of study and the research approach. We identify and analyse 120 articles, published in information systems journals and conference proceedings. We find an unbalanced inquiry, with an overwhelming focus on the individual in the context of gaming (virtual worlds) and education, which resonates poorly with the more recently reported wider societal impact. We therefore end by call-ing for research on immersive virtual environments in which the broader social implications of the maturing technology are brought to the forefront of research.

Comparative study of hand–eye calibration methods for augmented reality using an endoscope

We performed a comprehensive study of hand–eye calibration approaches for augmented reality (AR) using endoscopes, aiming to find the approaches that yield the best performance and to reveal the mechanism that makes these approaches successful. The two unknown values in this calibration problem are the hand–eye transformation between an endoscope and the endoscope-attached optotracked marker and the transformation between a calibration board with a checker pattern and the board-attached marker. We classify possible approaches to solving hand–eye transformation as direct, simultaneous, and sequential. The effect of the translation components of transformations on an approach’s accuracy is theoretically analyzed using error equations derived from the approaches and demonstrated using both synthetic and real data. We found that sequential approaches performed the best when the magnitude of the translation of hand–eye transformation was larger than that between the board and its marker, which is the general case in implementing AR using endoscopes. In addition, this approach is less sensitive to noise and the number of calibration poses than others. Our results and analyses provide guidance for choosing an optimal hand–eye calibration solution for AR using endoscopes.

A New Era for Web AR with Mobile Edge Computing

Dedicated device-based and app-based augmented reality (AR) solutions have inherent limitations regarding cross-platform, pervasive AR application provisioning. Web-based AR (web AR), a promising lightweight and cross-platform approach to AR, is gaining increasing attention owing to its extensive application areas. However, for computationally intensive AR applications, the weak computational efficiency of current web browsers seriously hampers applications of web AR on a large scale. The browser + cloud approach suffers from the high-latency dilemma. Now, with the emerging 5G networks, mobile edge computing (MEC) promises to greatly reduce network latency (even to 1 ms) by deploying applications at the network edge closer to users, which provides an opportunity for performance improvement of web AR. In this article, the authors envision that the application of MEC has the potential to bring web AR into a new era. Specifically, an MEC-oriented web AR solution is first proposed, followed by the design and deployment details. The authors also discuss future directions aimed at using MEC to tackle the performance issues of web AR in 3G, 4G, and 5G networks.