Research Topic:
Our research topic is about Augmented Reality. Augmented Reality is actually something not new and has already existed few years back then but most of us still do not know what augmented reality really is. Perhaps we have come across it once or twice but we never knew what it was and would treat it as something new and advance.
This technology, augmented reality is actually blurring the line between what is real and what is computer-generated by enhancing what we see, hear, feel and smell. We would want to know what is actually augmented reality and how is it applied into businesses. Take for example, some businesses allows customers to shop using this augmented reality technology as a different way to present their products. This technology is being adopted into the e-commerce, where it may eventually bring upon a revolution in the way on how people do their shopping.
We would want to know what is actually augmented reality and how is it applied into our life, such as the most popular iPhone itself has actually adapted to this technology, providing users of this technology through its applications. Some says that iPhone will be a key turning point in popularizing the technology. Take for example, in the Netherlands; users can use an application called “Layar” that uses the phone’s camera and GPS capabilities to gather information about the surrounding areas. This application will then show users the nearest locations on restaurants or other sites in the surroundings.
Video games can also be added graphics, sounds, and even smell to the natural as it exists. Cell phone and video games are now starting to turn their research and development to augmented reality. Everyone from tourist, to soldiers, and so on can now benefit from the ability to place computer-generated graphics in their field of vision. This technology is actually changing the way we view the world.
Rationale of topic choice:
Why is augmented reality an interesting topic to us? Most of us may have come across this technology but we never bother to know or even know what this technology is called. It is quite a disappointment when we know that this technology had already been around for quite some time already and before we knew this, we thought that it is actually some recent technology. Therefore, we are doing this topic in order to know more on this augmented reality technology and also its uses in different areas. We attempt to also research on the benefits and limitations of this augmented reality technology. Can this augmented reality pull up the standard of living of the human population? Or is it merely just a technology that goes no where? We are also interested in its application in e-commerce; on how it can help businesses to achieve better presentation of products to the customer, such as in shopping using this augmented reality technology.
In terms of not knowing augmented reality, is augmented reality not efficient? Or perhaps it is not suitable for users in dealing with our needs. We will attempt to research and to know what the benefits are and also limitations for this augmented reality technology. We will first of all introduce to how augmented reality is really functioned and also find how on how it can contribute to the society especially in e-commerce.
Once we get to know on this technology, we will have a better understanding of what augmented reality can really offers and perhaps it might be useful for us in the near future. Perhaps the next generation coming up will fully adapt to this technology and we, as the older generations by then are able to cope with this technology too.
Research paper’s objective:
- To understand how augmented reality is functioned, where this research introduces its appearance, how does it work and its approach to the users.
- To find out how can it contribute to the society in the business fields, especially in e-commerce, manufacturing line, education and also mobile. This overall discuss mainly on the cost and benefits that it can provide to the users as a whole.
- To analyse the issues involved, strategies and also the future direction of augmented reality (such as the effectiveness and benefits, limitations and also the current and future directions of the augmented reality).
Report Outline:
1.0 Introduction
1.1 Research objective
1.2 Definition of AR
1.3 Rationale of topic choice
2.0 Software of AR
3.0 Applications
3.1 Business and Manufacturing line
3.2 Education
3.3 Mobile
3.4 Current and Future
4.0 Issues
4.1 Effectiveness and Benefits
4.2 Limitations and Unexpected Dangers
5.0 Conclusion
6.0 Recommendations
7.0 References
Literature Review:
According to Roberts et.al (2002), Augmented Reality (AR) is a technology based on virtual reality where virtual data is placed over onto real life images, ensuing in a combination of the two background. AR fills the area between the real world and the virtual world. It takes the information character of the virtual world and makes them effortlessly reachable and relevant to the user. AR is not only a visually based coordination but another medium that is normally augmented onto reality is the element of sound (Roberts, 2000). AR can be thought of as the "middle ground" between virtual environments (completely synthetic) and telepresence (completely real) (Miligram et.al 1994). In contrast, AR 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 (Azuma 1997).
According to Peter Grad 2010, “Augmented reality — AR in techspeak — is becoming more of an everyday reality for millions of smart-phone users these days. AR is becoming a powerful weapon for consumers in search of good buys. The iPhone’s Red Laser application scans product bar codes and instantly displays a list of nearby stores and prices. And it does more: Scan a book bar code in a store, for example, and not only will you get competitor store prices, you will also be shown prices at online sites such as Amazon and half.com, that often offer books at steep discounts.” AR uses specially designed markers to regulate the camera and track the movement of the indicator for the augmentation of 3D product models. Only simple hardware is required for this system except a PC camera (Zhang, Navab & Liou 2002).
In recent years, Junaio is one of the examples of more user-centric world browsers allocating clients to tag and upload content as they come across it in the real world and to share and ascertain the information that other users have uploaded (Reynolds et.al 2010). According to Paul Golding (2010), Junaio is the next-generation mobile augmented-reality browser for camera-equipped device.
According to Wagner & Schmalstieg (2007), during the past years, ARToolKit is the major low-cost optical tracking solution for many AR developers. It is fit for tracking solutions for many functions, as it works with one optical eye effective in the evident light range, therefore allows a handheld mechanism to work freely relying only on passive infrastructure, making it a first choice for a single tracking solution on mobile devices such as PDAs. ARToolKit employs computer vision method to estimate the real camera stance relative to a real world marker (Kato,Billinghurst &Poupyrev 2000). Besides ARToolKit, there are also many other AR platforms such as DART and Studierstube, which can also provide an easy to use tool allowing anyone who has or no AR background to rapidly develop AR applications from initial concept designs to final designs and developments.
According to Huang et.al (2010), AR has been used in multiple areas such as education, entertainment, advertisement, market shopping, etc. AR technique can be used in sales, advertisement of market where consumer can get plenty of product information and services. E-commerce based AR was developed to provide shopping assistance and personalized advertising. AR is particularly powerful for educational purposes when users are collocated and can use natural means of communication, but can also be mixed successfully with immersive VR or remote collaboration (Shelton 2002) According to Azuma (1997), assembly, maintenance, and repair of complex machinery are areas of AR application development. Instructions might be easier to understand if they were accessible, not as guidebook with text and pictures, but rather as 3-D drawings overlaying upon the actual equipment, showing gradually the tasks that required to be completed and how to enforce them. These overlay 3-D drawings can be dynamic, making the instructions even more precise.
As said by Lawrence Swaider, “Augmented reality will become easier and easier and become seamless parts of our lives”. Mobile phones would be the most convenient hardware for AR to work and would be the future trend of focus for AR yet more research has to be conducted for metaphors and techniques (Haller, Billinghurst & Thomas 2007)
Major References:
· Ronald T. Azuma, Hughes Research Laboratories, “A survey of Augmented Reality”, viewed 28 October 2010.
This is a survey on the current state-of-the-art in Augmented Reality. It describes work performed at many different sites and explains the issues and problems encountered when building Augmented Reality systems. Sites referred to are such as in medical, manufacturing, visualization, path planning, entertainment and also military applications. It summarizes the tradeoffs and approaches taken so far to overcome these problems and speculates on future directions that deserve exploration. This article had aid us on discussing the application of AR in Business and manufacturing line. It provides us some guidelines and also how the AR helps in the manufacturing line. Besides that, it also allows us to know more or less on the limitations of the AR which give us roughly an idea that greatly assisted in our research.
· R. Silva, J. C. Oliveira, G. A. Giraldi, National Laboratoty for Scientific Computation, “Introduction to Augmented Reality”, viewed 28 October 2010.
This reports an overview of basic aspects of Augmented Reality (AR) and the main concepts of this technology. It describes the main fields in which AR is applied nowadays and important AR devices. Some characteristics of Augmented Reality systems were discussed and this paper will provide an overview of them. Besides that, the future directions of AR were also discussed. We have learnt from this article some of the future applications and challenges that we take into account for our discussion when analyzing the current and also future directions of augmented reality.
· S. K. Ong, M. L. Yuan, A. Y. C. Nee, Published by Taylor & Francis, “Augmented reality applications in manufacturing: a survey”, Mechanical Engineering Department, National University of Singapore, viewed 28 October 2010.
This paper provides a comprehensive survey of developed and demonstrated AR applications in manufacturing activities. The intention of this survey is to provide researchers, students, and engineers, who use or plan to use AR as a tool in manufacturing research, a useful insight on the state-of-the-art AR applications and developments. Therefore, it had actually provided us a lot of information for our discussion on augmented reality, especially on our discussion on manufacturing line and also businesses.
· David Drascic and Paul Milgram, “Perceptual Issues in Augmented Reality”, Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, University of Toronto, viewed 28 October 2010.
The article identifies and discusses eighteen issues that pertain to Mixed Reality in general and Augmented Reality in particular. The paper also creates awareness on the problems that may be of the system and design systems around the weaknesses that these perceptual issues can create. This enables us to gain more understanding on the limitations on AR and also the solution to the problems of AR. It helped a lot in our discussion for the limitations and unexpected dangers of AR.
· Wayne Pierkarski and Bruce H. Thomas, “Using ARToolKit for 3D Hand Position Tracking in Mobile Outdoor Environments”, University of South Australia, viewed 28 October 2010
This paper describes how we have used the ARToolKit to perform three degrees of freedom tracking of the hands, in world coordinates, which is used to interact with a mobile outdoor augmented reality computer. It aids us in discussing the problem of making ARToolKit to generate world coordinates, and the solutions we developed to meet the requirements for our tracking system. It also helps us to understand on how the ARToolKit has allowed integrating hand tracking into their outdoor modeling applications.
Other References:
Alan B.Craig, William R. Sherman, Jeffrey D. Will, Developing Virtual Reality Applications: Foundations of effective design, last viewed 28 October 2010, http://books.google.com.my/books?id=2P91gPYr5KkC&printsec=frontcover&dq=developing+virtual+reality+applications&hl=en&ei=yWKxTLawHY7-vQPt1q2mBg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CC8Q6AEwAA#v=onepage&q&f=false
ARToolKit, ARToolKit Home Page, last viewed 28 October 2010, http://www.hitl.washington.edu/artoolkit/
Christine Bardwell, Augmented reality boosts retail sales, but where is the ROI?, June 2010, last viewed 28 October 2010, http://mis-asia.com/opinion__and__blogs/bloggers/augmented-reality-boosts-retail-sales,-but-where-is-the-roi
Demystifyingusability, What’s next in mobile user experience? Augmented Reality, September 2009, last viewed 28 October 2010, http://www.demystifyingusability.com/2009/09/augmented-reality-user-experience.html
Dylan Schmorrow, Leah M.Reeves, Foundations of augmented cognition: third international conference, FAC 2007, last viewed 28 October 2010, http://books.google.com.my/books?id=P00EWiefUWQC&pg=PA440&dq=limitations+of+augmented+reality&hl=en&ei=cmaxTJfLF5TEvQOh1Pz4Bg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CCsQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=limitations%20of%20augmented%20reality&f=false
EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative, 7 things you should know about Augmented Reality, September 2005, last viewed 28 October 2010, http://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7007.pdf
Julie A. Jacko, Human-computer Interaction: Interaction platforms and techniques, last viewed 28 October 2010, http://books.google.com.my/books?id=N8deh8UXcGEC&pg=PA932&dq=human+computer+interaction:+interation+platform+and+technique&hl=en&ei=UWKxTIqOHomgvgPck5CABw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CC0Q6AEwAA#v=onepage&q&f=false
Junaio, Make the World Yours!, Metaio Inc. 2010, last viewed 28 October 2010, http://www.junaio.com/
Mark Billinghurst, Augmented Reality in Education, December 2002, last viewed 28 October 2010, http://www.newhorizons.org/strategies/technology/billinghurst.htm
Metaio Augmented Solutions, Create Mobile Augmented Reality Experiences, last viewed 28 October 2010, http://www.metaio.com/products/mobile/
MIT Press, Augmented Learning – Ebooks at the MIT Press, last viewed 28 October 2010, http://mitpress-ebooks.mit.edu/product/augmented-learning
UTC by arn, Impressive Augmented Realitu Game Possibilities on the iPhone, GDC 2009, last viewed 28 October 2010, http://toucharcade.com/2009/03/26/impressive-augmented-reality-game-possibilities-on-the-iphone/
WSJ.com 2009, Esquire Experiments with a Digital Reality, last viewed 28 October 2010, http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704222704574501122991439500.html?mod=article-outset-box
Yuka Yoneda, Solar Powered Augmented Contact Lenses Cover Your Eye With 100s of LEDs, 3/17/10, last viewed 28 October 2010, http://www.inhabitat.com/2010/03/17/solar-powered-augmented-contact-lenses-cover-your-eye-with-100s-of-leds/
