Scalable Algorithm for Resolving Incorrect Occlusion in Dynamic Augmented Reality Engineering Environments

@Augmented reality (AR) offers significant potential in construction, manufacturing, and other en- gineering disciplines that employ graphical visualization to plan and design their operations. As a result of intro- ducing real-world objects into the visualization, less vir- tual models have to be deployed to create a realistic visual output that directly translates into less time and effort re- quired to create, render, manipulate, manage, and update three-dimensional (3D) virtual contents (CAD model en- gineering) of the animated scene. At the same time, us- ing the existing layout of land or plant as the background of visualization significantly alleviates the need to collect data about the surrounding environment prior to creat- ing the final visualization while providing visually con- vincing representations of the processes being studied. In an AR animation, virtual and real objects must be simultaneously managed and accurately displayed to a user to create a visually convincing illusion of their co- existence and interaction. A critical challenge impeding this objective is the problem of incorrect occlusion that manifests itself when real objects in an AR scene par- tially or wholly block the view of virtual objects. In the ∗ To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: vkamat