AUGMENTED REALITY
Wearables
Perspective registration
Video Augmentation
The WristCam

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A wearable Augmented Reality system involves a headset, similar to a VR headset, but through which the user can see. Some wearables simply display data, figures, etc. on a virtual "screen" or heads-up display. But an AR wearable must register the overlay to the actual scene, so that it "sticks" to it and augments the user's perception of the real world. In earlier work at the Multimedia Communication Lab of Memorial University of Newfoundland, we developed a fast perspective registration algorithm and a demonstration application where the user wears a conventional VR display fitted with a video camera, and views the camera output with overlays, rather than viewing the real world directly through a transparent display. The tracking algorithm ensures that annotations placed on an object stay locked on it so long as the change in shape of the object, as the user moves, is small. Other wearable applications developed in that lab include a piano tutor that recognizes hands, a ballroom dancing instructor that recognizes feet, and a general-purpose input application that recognizes finger gestures. We collaborated with three local companies in applying our wearable AR technology to the fusion of chart, radar and visual data for shipboard applications.

Graphic by Li-Te Cheng