In 1997, Azuma published a survey on augmented reality (AR). Our goal is to complement, rather than replace, the original survey by presenting representative examples of the new advances. We refer one to the original survey for descriptions of potential applications (such as medical visualization, maintenance and repair of complex equipment, annotation, and path planning); summaries of AR system characteristics (such as the advantages and disadvantages of optical and video approaches to blending virtual and real, problems in display focus and contrast, and system portability); and an introduction to the crucial problem of registration, including sources of registration error and error-reduction strategies.

https://www.cc.gatech.edu/~blair/papers/ARsurveyCGA.pdf

Recent advances in augmented reality

Virtual reality (VR) environments are increasingly being used by neuroscientists to simulate natural events and social interactions. VR creates interactive, multimodal sensory stimuli that offer unique advantages over other approaches to neuroscientific research and applications. VR's compatibility with imaging technologies such as functional MRI allows researchers to present multimodal stimuli with a high degree of ecological validity and control while recording changes in brain activity. Therapists, too, stand to gain from progress in VR technology, which provides a high degree of control over the therapeutic experience. Here we review the latest advances in VR technology and its applications in neuroscience research.

/pdf/virtual-reality-in-neuroscience-research-and-therapy-1xvzjgmfm5.pdf

Virtual reality in neuroscience research and therapy

ADHD and the Nature of Self-Control

This paper introduces the Everywhere Displays projector, a device that uses a rotating mirror to steer the light from an LCD/DLP projector onto different surfaces of an environment. Issues of brightness, oblique projection distortion, focus, obstruction, and display resolution are examined. Solutions to some of these problems are described, together with a plan to use a video camera to allow device-free interaction with the projected images. The ED-projector is a practical way to create ubiquitous graphical interfaces to access computational power and networked data. In particular, it is envisioned as an alternative to the carrying of laptops and to the installation of displays in furniture, objects, and walls. In addition, the use of ED-projectors to augment reality without the use of goggles is examined and illustrated with examples.

The Everywhere Displays Projector: A Device to Create Ubiquitous Graphical Interfaces

This survey summarizes almost 50 years of research and development in the field of Augmented Reality AR. From early research in the1960's until widespread availability by the 2010's there has been steady progress towards the goal of being able to seamlessly combine real and virtual worlds. We provide an overview of the common definitions of AR, and show how AR fits into taxonomies of other related technologies. A history of important milestones in Augmented Reality is followed by sections on the key enabling technologies of tracking, display and input devices. We also review design guidelines and provide some examples of successful AR applications. Finally, we conclude with a summary of directions for future work and a review of some of the areas that are currently being researched.

/pdf/a-survey-of-augmented-reality-2ce6xet7y5.pdf

A Survey of Augmented Reality

Proposes a novel visuo-haptic display using a head-mounted projector (HMP) with X'tal Vision (Crystal Vision) optics. Our goal is to develop a device which enables an observer to touch a virtual object just as it is seen. We describe in detail the design of an HMP with X'tal Vision, which is very suitable for augmented reality. For instance, the HMP makes the occlusion relationship between the virtual and the real environments nearly correct. Accordingly, the user can observe his/her real hand with the virtual objects. Furthermore, the HMP reduces eye fatigue because of the low inconsistency of accommodation and convergence. Therefore, we applied HMP-model 2 to a visuo-haptic display using a camouflage technique. This technique, called optical camouflage, makes an obstacle object, such as a haptic display, become translucent. With this method, a user can observe a stereoscopic virtual object with a nearly correct occlusion relationship between the virtual and the real environments, and he can actually feel the object.

Visuo-haptic display using head-mounted projector

Most attempts to realize an olfactory display have involved capturing and synthesizing the odor, processes that still pose many challenging problems. These difficulties are mainly due to the mechanism of human olfaction, in which a set of so-called "primary odors" has not been found. Instead, we focus on spatio-temporal control of odor rather than synthesizing odor itself. Many existing interactive olfactory displays simply diffuse the scent into the air, which does not provide the ability of spatio-temporal control of olfaction. Recently, however, several researchers have developed olfactory displays that inject scented air under the nose through tubes. On the analogy of visual displays, these systems correspond to head-mounted displays (HMD). These yield a solid way to achieve spatio-temporal control of olfactory space, but they require the user to wear something on his or her face. Here, we propose an unencumbering olfactory display that does not require the user to attach anything on the face. It works by projecting a clump of scented air from a location near the user's nose through free space. We also aim to display a scent to the restricted space around a specific user's nose, rather than scattering scented air by simply diffusing it into the atmosphere. To implement this concept, we used an "air cannon" that generates toroidal vortices of the scented air. We conducted a preliminary experiment to examine this method's ability to display scent to a restricted space. The results show that we could successfully display incense to the target user. Next, we constructed prototype systems. We could successfully bring the scented air to a specific user by tracking the nose position of the user and controlling the orientation of the air cannon to the user's nose.

/pdf/projection-based-olfactory-display-with-nose-tracking-5c4f3qb7yu.pdf

Projection based olfactory display with nose tracking

Although texture mapping is a common technique for adding apparent surface detail to 3-D objects, it lacks the capability to represent the motion parallax effect. So the mesh to which it is applied limits its realism. In this paper, we propose Parallax Mapping, a simple method to motion parallax effects on a polygon. This method has very fast per-pixel shape representation and can be performed in real-time with current hardware.

Detailed Shape Representation with Parallax Mapping

This paper presents work we have done on the design and implementation of an untethered system to deliver haptic cues for use in immersive virtual environments through a body-worn garment. Our system can control a large number of body-worn vibration units, each with individually controllable vibration intensity. Several design iterations have helped us to refine the system and improve such aspects as robustness, ease of donning and doffing, weight, power consumption, cable management, and support for many different types of feedback units, such as pager motors, solenoids, and muffin fans. In addition, experience integrating the system into an advanced virtual reality system has helped define some of the design constraints for creating wearable solutions, and to further refine our implementation.

Towards full-body haptic feedback: the design and deployment of a spatialized vibrotactile feedback system

This paper presents a development history of a wearable, scalable vibrotactile stimulus delivery system. This history has followed a path from desktop-based, fully wired systems, through hybrid approaches consisting of a wireless connection from the host computer to a body-worn control box and wires to each tactor, to a completely wireless system employing Bluetooth technology to connect directly from the host to each individual tactor unit. Applications for such a system include delivering vibrotactile contact cues to users of virtual environments, providing directional cues in order to increase situational awareness in both real and virtual environments, and for general information display in wearable contexts. Through empirical study, we show that even a simple configuration, such as eight tactors arrayed around the torso, can be effective in increasing situational awareness in a building-clearing task, compared to users who perform the same task without the added cues.

Yasuyuki Yanagida

Papers

Visuo-haptic display using head-mounted projector

Projection based olfactory display with nose tracking

Detailed Shape Representation with Parallax Mapping

Towards full-body haptic feedback: the design and deployment of a spatialized vibrotactile feedback system

Wearable vibrotactile systems for virtual contact and information display