AUGMENTED REALITY

AUGMENTED REALITY

Augmented Reality (AR) is a variation of Virtual Environments (VE), or
Virtual Reality as it is more commonly called. VE technologies completely immerse
a user inside a synthetic environment. While immersed, the user cannot see the real
world around him. In contrast, AR allows the user to see the real world, with virtual
objects superimposed upon with the real world. Therefore, AR
supplements reality, rather than completely replacing it. Ideally, it would appear to
the user that the virtual and real objects coexisted in the same space, similar to the
effects achieved in the film "Who Framed Roger Rabbit?" Figure 1 shows an
example of what this might look like. It shows a real desk with a real phone. Inside
this room are also a virtual lamp and two virtual chairs. Note that the objects are
combined in 3-D, so that the virtual lamp covers the real table, and the real table
covers parts of the two virtual chairs. AR can be thought of as the "middle ground"
between VE (completely artifical) and tele-presence (completely real).

The AR has  a number of applications, and many areas can benefit with the use of AR technology . This concept  was 1st used for military, industrial, and medical applications, later it was soon applied to commercial and entertainment areas also.

Recently in 2o13 Google Glass augmented reality glasses were introduced by Google group. These glasses reach the Internet via connectivity device such as  bluetooth , which connects to the wireless service on a user mobile phone. These  glasses will  respond  only when a user try to speak or touches the frame or moves the head.

Today individuals must pull out a physical map and associate what they see in the real environment around them with the markings on the 2–D map. The AR system can draw the map in 3-D directly upon the user's view. The user looks at a nearby mountain and sees graphics directly overlaid on the real environment explaining the mountain's name, how tall it is.

One of the most basic problems currently limiting Augmented Reality applications is the registration problem. The objects in the real and virtual worlds must be properly aligned with respect to each other, or the illusion that the two worlds coexist will be compromised. More seriously, many applications demand accurate registration.

The biggest single obstacle to building effective Augmented Reality systems is the requirement of accurate, long-range sensors and trackers that report the locations of the user and the surrounding objects in the environment. AR demands more from trackers and sensors in three areas: Greater input variety and bandwidth, Higher accuracy, Longer range.

After the basic problems with AR are solved, the ultimate goal will be  Lighting conditions, surface reflections, and other properties must be measured automatically, in real time. More sophisticated lighting, texturing, and shading capabilities must run at interactive rates in future scene generators. Registration must be nearly perfect, without manual intervention or adjustments.  It took about 25 years to progress from drawing stick figures on a screen to the photorealistic dinosaurs in "Jurassic Park." Within another 25 years, we should be able to wear a pair of AR glasses outdoors to see and interact with photorealistic dinosaurs eating a tree in our backyard.

Augmented Reality is far behind Virtual Environments in maturity. A few monitor-based "virtual set" systems are available, but today AR systems are primarily found in academic and industrial research laboratories.

Augmented Reality is a relatively new field, where most of the research efforts have occurred in the past four years. Because of the numerous challenges and unexplored avenues in this area, AR will remain a vibrant area of research for at least the next several years.