Borko Furht - Handbook of Augmented Reality

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We define Augmented Reality (AR) as a real-time direct or indirect view of a physical real-world environment that has been enhanced/ augmented by adding virtual computer-generated information to it [].

Augmented Reality aims at simplifying the users life by bringing virtual information not only to his immediate surroundings, but also to any indirect view of the real-world environment, such as live-video stream. AR enhances the users perception of and interaction with the real world. While Virtual Reality (VR) technology or Virtual Environment as called by Milgram, completely immerses users in a synthetic world without seeing the real world, AR technology augments the sense of reality by superimposing virtual objects and cues upon the real world in real time. Note that, as Azuma et al. [] also considered AR applications that require removing real objects from the environment, which are more commonly called mediated or diminished reality , in addition to adding virtual objects. Indeed, removing objects from the real world corresponds to covering the object with virtual information that matches the background in order to give the user the impression that the object is not there. Virtual objects added to the real environment show information to the user that the user cannot directly detect with his senses. The information passed on by the virtual object can help the user in performing daily-tasks work, such as guiding workers through electrical wires in an aircraft by displaying digital information through a headset. The information can also simply have an entertainment purpose, such as Wikitude or other mobile augmented reality. There are many other classes of AR applications, such as medical visualization, entertainment, advertising, maintenance and repair, annotation, robot path planning, etc.

The first appearance of Augmented Reality (AR) dates back to the 1950s when Morton Heilig, a cinematographer, thought of cinema is an activity that would have the ability to draw the viewer into the onscreen activity by taking in all the senses in an effective manner. In 1962, Heilig built a prototype of his vision, which he described in 1955 in The Cinema of the Future, named Sensorama, which predated digital computing [] predicts that AR technologies will emerge more fully within the next 45 years; and, as to confirm that prediction, camera systems that can analyze physical environments in real time and relate positions between objects and environment are developed the same year. This type of camera system has become the basis to integrate virtual objects with reality in AR systems. In the following years, more and more AR applications are developed especially with mobile applications, such as Wikitude AR Travel Guide launched in 2008, but also with the development of medical applications in 2007. Nowadays, with the new advances in technology, an increasing amount of AR systems and applications are produced, notably with MIT 6th sense prototype and the release of the iPad 2 and its successors and competitors, notably the Eee Pad, and the iPhone 4, which promises to revolutionize mobile AR.