Using Mobile Code to Create Ubiquitous Augmented Reality

Augmented reality systems supplement reality by adding virtual objects into a real-world view. In this article, we describe a flexible mobile code approach for implementing ubiquitous, active, and mobile augmented reality systems. We will concentrate primarily on solving the problem of how to acquire the data for the virtual objects in a way that will be flexible and expandable enough to be used in ubiquitous computing. To clarify the concepts and to illustrate our current research status, we will present an example system that provides virtual user interfaces for various real-world objects. We also hope that these interfaces provide useful insights to the possibilities that our approach can provide. This article suggests that the mobile code approach offers a relatively simple solution that is flexible, scales well, and does not require the computing equipment attached to the real-world objects to be excessively complicated. We can use the same approach in applications that provide only simple descriptions of the real-world objects and in complex applications that allow the user to manipulate real-world objects via virtual user interfaces that exist only in augmented reality. Our approach also supports active augmented reality, in which the virtual objects can react to the real-world events.