BACKGROUND OF AUGMENTED REALITY
From 1957, a gentlemen known by the name of Morton Helig began building a machine called the Sensorama. It was designed as a cinematic experience to take in all your senses and, shaped, rather like arcade machine from the 80s, it blew wind at you, vibrated the seat you sat on, played sounds to your eyes and projected a form of a stereoscopic 3D environment to the front and sides of your head. It was supposed to be impressive with its demo film of a cycle ride through the streets of Brooklyn but it never sold commercially and was very expensive to make films for largely because it involved the camera man having three cameras strapped to him at all times, and while it was really more an adventure in full virtual reality, there are clearly elements of AR involved with both the devices in place between the user and the environment and that fact that the environment itself was, itself, the real world viewed in a real time situation - even if recorded.
In 1966 Professor Ivan Sutherland of Electrical Engineering at Harvard University invented the first model of one of the most important devices used in both AR and VR today - the head-mounted display or HMD. It was a monumental piece of kit that was too heavy for the human head to actually bear and so hung suspended from the ceiling of the lab instead which was how it got its nickname as The Sword of Damocles. Being early in the scale of computer technology, its graphical prowess was fairly limited and provided just simple wireframe models of generated environments. Nonetheless, it was the first step in making AR a usable possibility.
The term augmented reality is believed to have been coined in 1990 by Thomas Caudell, working at Boeing.
DEFINITION OF AUGMENTED REALITY
Augmented Reality(AR) can be define as a type of virtual reality that aims to duplicate the world's environment in a computer. An augmented reality system generates a composite view for the user that is the combination of the real scene viewed by the user and a virtual scene generated by the computer that augments the scene with additional information. The virtual scene generated by the computer is designed to enhance the user's sensory perception of the virtual world they are seeing or interacting with. The goal of Augmented Reality is to create a system in which the user cannot tell the difference between the real world and the virtual augmentation of it. Today Augmented Reality is used in entertainment, engineering design, military training, manufacturing and many other industries.APPLICATION AND EXAMPLES OF AUGMENTED REALITY
AR has been widely apply in different field to facilitate different operations. There are some examples here:Mechanical Repair
An engineer with some form of trackable, head-mounted display and a see-through visor can proceed with his work while ``seeing'' a continually updated, annotated display which assists him in identifying the components before him and reminds him of the tasks he must perform.
Interior Design and Modeling
An interior architect designs, remodels, and visualizes a room, using funiture models from a database that are superimposed on video images of the room.Computer-Aided Surgery
A doctor performs surgery using Augmented Reality tools to see medical image data (including volume rendered versions and computer graphics renderings of physical implants or other devices) visually superimposed on a human subject.Electric Manufacturing and Diagnostics of Printed Circuit Boards
A technician diagnoses what is wrong with a particular printed circuit board (PC board), using Augmented Reality and Artificial Intelligence technology to analyze the reported symptoms, highlight the detected trouble spots in a video image of the PC board, and overlay relevant information that is pulled out of user manuals.Apparel Retail
A customer shops for clothes, using an augmented reality system to look through an extensive electronic catalogue and electronically wear'' selected items to see'' how they fit.Industrial Plant Maintenance
Maintenance personnel tries to find a pipe with a certain functionality among the jungle of existing pipes. The technician sees an adjustable video image of the factory floor on a monitor. Functional data (e.g., labels, measurements such as temperature and pressure) are superimposed on the image to help him identify and inspect the correct pipe.Road Repair and Maintenance
A repair crew is about to dig a road and wants to avoid hitting major water pipes. The workers aim a camera to the road and get an image of where the main water pipes under the road are. This is accomplished with the aid of an augmented reality system which uses a GPS system and a database of the water pipes in the city.AUGMENTED REALITY PROGRAMS
The key to augmented reality is the software. Augmented reality programs are written in special 3D augmented reality programs such as D'Fusion, Unifye Viewer or FLARToolKit. These programs allow the developer to tie animation or contextual digital information in the computer program to an augmented reality "marker" in the real world.
The end user must download a software application (app) or browser plug-in in order to experience augmented reality. Most AR applications are built in Flashor Shockwave and require a webcam program to deliver the information in the marker to the computer. The marker, which is sometimes called a target, might be a barcode or simple series of geometric shapes. When the computer's AR app or browser plug-in receives the digital information contained in the marker, it begins to execute the code for the augmented reality program. The following website are one of the examples of AR,
WE ARE AUTOBOTS - http://www.weareautobots.com - uses augmented reality (AR) and face tracking technology to let you picture yourself with the head of legendary Autobot leader Optimus Prime. The video below shows how it work out:
Here is an another acknowledge of Augmented Reality, AR is known as mediated reality in which a view of reality is modified (possibly even diminished rather than augmented) by a computer
As a result, the technology functions by enhancing one’s current perception of reality. By contrast, virtual reality replaces the real world with a simulated one.
Augmentation is conventionally in real-time and in semantic context with environmental elements, such as sports scores on TV during a match. With the help of advanced AR technology (e.g. adding computer vision and object recognition) the information about the surrounding real world of the user becomes interactive and digitally manipulable. Artificial information about the environment and its objects can be overlaid on the real world.
Research explores the application of computer-generated imagery in live-video streams as a way to enhance the perception of the real world. AR technology includes head-mounted-displays and virtual retinal displays for visualization purposes, and construction of controlled environments containing sensors and actuators.
Here is another example of AR,
http://www.hellokittyonline.com/ is a website that uses the technology of augmented reality by using the famous animation Hello Kitty.
The website that teaches you the steps how to make it works is as below:
Additional understanding of AR
Augmented reality (AR) is the integration of digital information with live video or the user's environment in real time. Basically, AR takes an existing picture and blends new information into it. One of the first commercial applications of AR technology is the yellow first down line in televised football games.
The key to augmented reality is the software. Augmented reality programs are written in special 3D augmented reality programs such as D'Fusion, Unifye Viewer or FLARToolKit. These programs allow the developer to tie animation or contextual digital information in the computer program to an augmented reality "marker" in the real world.
The end user must download a software application or browser plug-in in order to experience augmented reality. Most AR applications are built in Flash or Shockwave and require a webcam program to deliver the information in the marker to the computer. The marker, which is sometimes called a target, might be a barcodeor simple series of geometric shapes. When the computer's AR app or browser plug-in receives the digital information contained in the marker, it begins to execute the code for the augmented reality program.
AR applications for smartphones include global positioning system (GPS) to pinpoint the user's location and its compass to detect device orientation. Sophisticated AR programs used by the military for training may include machine vision. object recognition and gesture recognition technologies.
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