> > AR seems to loose something if you have to look at a device. I > > could see AR > > being helpful in turning the windshielf of a car into a HUD > > overlaying CGI > > icons of locations of interest on the actual real world view.
I believe that the ideal form factor will likely always vary, like any mobile geo app really. The HMD and HUD ideas are best for applications where you need your hands to be free. But when you want to start interacting a bit more with a stylus or drawing tool, look-through devices like tablet PC's, phones or PDA's seem to be a better fit. It's really just one of many visualisation platforms. If it's head-mounted then your tracking head movement, otherwise your tracking device movement, so I don't see a big difference (except if you want stereo viewing). Either way, I'm interested in debating the concepts for getting geodata into apps that render for AR purposes. I've done some where I put a DEM of a crater using ARToolkit (really useful in-doors) and rendered it atop a piece of paper using a webcam (see attached). This meant pushing out my DEM as a VRML model. Fun fun fun, but only the beginning I hope. I'd love to see how much could be done with existing platforms - worldwind, osgplanet, google earth, etc. or an API like openscenegraph. At its simplest level, I see taking a platform such as these and tying in some sensor data and triggering calls to move the camera location/orientation. Getting it working with rough locating via GPS would be a great start. I don't mind manually registering my graphics once I'm roughly located. But obviously the sweet spot will be to use other sensors (digital compass, accelerometers, etc) to orient the computer graphics as closely as possible. Btw, I do know there are whole Phd's working on this stuff, but I have had a hard time seeing how to get many of their results applied in real-world (and outdoor) context. There sure are a lot of papers just on registration algorithms though :) Anyway, I have to go but will lay out some more stuff later. Thanks all. Tyler _______________________________________________ Geowanking mailing list [email protected] http://lists.burri.to/mailman/listinfo/geowanking
