Approach
The objective of this project is to develop an "ultra portable" Augmented Reality (AR) system, i.e. to design and implement a new AR-system which works on minimal hardware. It can be observed that, a service technician doesn't require a continuous live-video stream during the accomplishment of his maintenance task. Starting from this first statement, we introduce the new concept of "AR-on-demand".
This concept relies on the basic idea that the user takes an image of the scene with the camera on the head-mounted-display, when augmented reality assistance is needed. This image is calibrated per user interaction on the touch-display of the handheld device or automatically through computer vision based registration algorithms. Afterward the image is augmented with a real-time graphic animation demonstrating the maintenance instructions.
The augmentation process may occur locally on the PC-unit, or the image can be sent to an expert who will insert the additional information. The user can then have a look at the augmented image of the scene, and is not distracted by a continuous video stream. The PC-unit is equipped with a monocular near-the-eye display, that doesn't obstruct the natural view of the user, and offers a maximum of comfort because of its lightweight. The goal hereby is to make augmented reality usable and to improve its acceptance by improving the quality of the hardware and the quality of the information presentation. The outcome of the project will be a highly innovative AR-system for mobile workers.