Augmented Reality and Wearable Computing
WS 1998/1999

Proseminar: 2 hours class.

Time and Location: Tuesday 12:00-13:30, N 1090

Start: 10 November 1998

Content:

Augmented Reality (AR) is a newly emerging technology  by which a user's view of the real world is augmented with additional information from a computer model. With mobile, wearable computers, users can access information without having to leave their work place. They can manipulate and examine real objects  and simultaneously receive additional information about them or the task at hand. Using AR technology, the information is presented three-dimensionally integrated into the real world. Exploiting people's visual and spatial skills to navigate in a three-dimensional world, AR thus constitutes a particularly promising new user interface paradigm.

Research in AR and wearable computing is beginning to receive more and more attention due to striking progress in  many subfields and fascinating live demonstrations (due to advances in computer miniaturization, mobile networking, and sensing technology). AR, by its very nature, is a highly inter-disciplinary field, and AR researchers work in areas such as signal processing, computer vision, graphics, user interfaces,  wearable computing, mobile computing, computer networks, distributed computing, information access, information visualization, software engineering, and the design of new displays.

The goal of this seminar is to survey current research, encourage critical thinking from its participants, and generate new ideas  for developing or applying AR and wearable computing technology. Both are still very young and not yet covered in text books. The seminar will thus draw on publications from recent workshops and special issues of journals or sessions in established conferences devoted to these new fields.  Each week, one or two participants will prepare an hour long presentation from a  list of selected topics  which is arranged to introduce some of the key institutions in these fields. The presentation will summarize one or more papers focussing on an institution or a technical topic to provide an overview, explain its significance, evaluate the results, and conclude with a list of issues that have been left open by the author. The presentation will be followed by an active discussion conducted by the other participants aimed to compile an overview of currently emerging research trends and solutions among the different institutions. At the end of the seminar,the issues and their ensuing discussion will be collected into an extended technical paper. Furthermore, since AR and wearable computing are rapidly emerging fields, participants are encouraged to actively explore the internet  - one of the dominant presentation channels in this dynamic field - and to actively build up a reference list of  related research.

Prerequisites: Students who have taken Informatik I and II or by special permission of the instructor.

Literature:

• Communications of the ACM, special issue on Augmented Environments, Vol. 36, No. 7, July 1993.
• Presence,  Presence, special Issue on Augmented Reality , Vol 6, No. 4, August

• Proc. of the 1. International Symposium on Wearable Computers( ISWC-1 ), Cambridge, MA, Oct 1997.
• Proc. of the 2. International Symposium on Wearable Computers ( ISWC-2 ), 1998.
• Proc. of the 1. International Workshop on Augmented Reality  (IWAR) , San Francisco, Nov. 1998.
• Jim Vallino's list of AR sites .
• Jun Rekimoto's list of AR sites.
• MIT list of wearable computing activities worldwide .

Notes:

• The seminar will be conducted in English.

Office hours: Mondays 10:00-15:00 in room -1209 (Prof. Bruegge)