Understanding Augmented Reality

Augmented reality is one of the newest innovations in the electronics industry. It is the superimposing of graphics, audio and other sense enhancements onto real-time environments - combining the physical and virtual worlds. Recent examples include the following: on TV, you have the super-imposed first down line in football games; on cell phones, apps now use the  phone's camera and GPS capabilities to gather info about one's surrounding area, overlaying this information on the phone's screen.

The essential components of Augmented Reality are simple: A computer (cell phone or laptop), a camera, sensors (GPS, touch, accelerometer, compass) and finally tracking software. But there are so many ways to develop AR technologies. Some applications are dependent on computer vision algorithms; others use other devices such as GPS, gyroscopes, accelerometers and other sensors. Likewise, numerous software libraries are emerging that offer different approaches to AR technologies. It is confusing, at best, trying to determine the best approach to take, and the most appropriate system architecture and software to use when developing your own AR applications.

Enter this book - a technical overview to the entire medium that provides the necessary background of what AR really is, the lay of the land in terms of hardware, software, interaction techniques, content development, and usability concerns to prepare you to create compelling and appropriate AR applications.