Wearing It Out : First Steps Toward Mobile Augmented Reality Systems

Over the past decade, there has been a ground swell of activity in two elds of user interface research: augmented reality and wearable computing. Augmented reality [1] refers to the creation of virtual environments that supplement, rather than replace, the real world with additional information. This is accomplished through the use of \see-through" displays that enrich the user's view of the world by overlaying visual, auditory, and even haptic, material on what she experiences. Visual augmented reality systems typically, but not exclusively, employ head-tracked, head-worn displays. These either use half-silvered mirror beam splitters to re ect small computer displays, optically combining them with a view of the real world, or use opaque displays fed by electronics that merge imagery captured by head-worn cameras with synthesized graphics. Wearable computing moves computers o the desktop and onto the user's body, made possible through the miniaturization of computers, peripherals, and networking technology. (While we prefer this general de nition implied by the