abstract: The construction industry has been growing over the past few years, but it is facing numerous challenges, related to craft labor availability and declining productivity. At the same time, the industry has benefited from computational advancements by leveraging the use of Building Information Modeling (BIM) to create information rich 3D models to enhance the planning, designing, and construction of projects. Augmented Reality (AR) is one technology that could further leverage BIM, especially on the construction site. This research looks at the human performance attributes enabled using AR as the main information delivery tool in the various stages of construction. The results suggest that using AR for information delivery can enhance labor productivity and enable untrained personnel to complete key construction tasks. However, its usability decreases when higher accuracy levels are required. This work contributes to the body of knowledge by empirically testing and validating the performance effects of using AR during construction tasks and highlights the limitations of current generation AR technology related to the construction industry. This work serves as foundation of future industry-based AR applications and research into potential AR implementations. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Civil, Environmental and Sustainable Engineering 2019

This essay is about the use of Augmented Reality in healthcare, to highlight the challenges and the opportunities that generate from the subject. With the continual development of technology that is introduced to healthcare, it is important to understand the effects that Augmented Reality has on the workers that use it, and the people who are affected by it. This essay is based on a literature review to be able to examine the information that is best suited to contribute to the work. We created a table to present our findings by identifying two perspectives that are affected by the use of AR. The two perspectives are introduced as Care providers and Care recipients, which are the two main signifiers in hospitals and the healthcare environment. The conclusion of this essay will reveal the opportunities and the challenges of Augmented Reality in healthcare and may serve as a suggestion to what the future of Augmented Reality in healthcare can hold.

Mixed reality, or augmented reality, where the real and the virtual worlds are combined, has seen an increase in interest in recent years with the release of tools like Google ARCore and Apple ARkit. Edge computing, where the distributed computing resources are located near the end device at the edge of the network, is a paradigm that enables offloading of computing tasks with latency requirements to dedicated servers. This thesis studies how edge computing can be used to bring mixed reality capabilities to mobile end devices that lack native support for that. It presents a working prototype for delivering mixed reality, evaluates the different technologies in it in relation to stability, responsiveness and resource usage, and studies the requirements on the end and edge devices. The experimental evaluation revealed that transmission time is the most significant chunk of end-to-end latency for the developed application. Reducing that delay will have a significant impact on future deployments of such systems. The thesis also presents other bottlenecks and best practices found during the prototype’s development, and how to proceed from here.

Spatial augmented reality is a particular kind of augmented reality technique that uses projector to blend the real objects with virtual contents. Coincidentally, as a means of 3D shape measurement, structured light illumination makes use of projector as part of its system as well. It uses the projector to generate important clues to establish the correspondence between the 2D image coordinate system and the 3D world coordinate system. So it is appealing to build a system that can carry out the functionalities of both spatial augmented reality and structured light illumination. In this dissertation, we present all the hardware platforms we developed and their related applications in spatial augmented reality and structured light illumination. Firstly, it is a dual-projector structured light 3D scanning system that has two synchronized projectors operate simultaneously, consequently it outperforms the traditional structured light 3D scanning system which only include one projector in terms of the quality of 3D reconstructions. Secondly, we introduce a modified dual-projector structured light 3D scanning system aiming at detecting and solving the multi-path interference. Thirdly, we propose an augmented reality face paint system which detects human face in a scene and paints the face with any favorite colors by projection. Additionally, the system incorporates a second camera to realize the 3D space position tracking by exploiting the principle of structured light illumination. At last, a structured light 3D scanning system with its own built-in machine vision camera is presented as the future work. So far the standalone camera has been completed from the a bare CMOS sensor. With this customized camera, we can achieve high dynamic range imaging and better synchronization between the camera and projector. But the full-blown system that includes HDMI transmitter, structured light pattern generator and synchronization logic has yet to be done due to the lack of a well designed high speed PCB.

Structured Light Imaging (SLI) is a means of digital reconstruction, or Three-Dimensional (3D) scanning, and has uses that span many disciplines. A projector, camera and Personal Computer (PC) are required to perform such 3D scans. Slight variances in synchronization between these three devices can cause malfunctions in the process due to the limitations of PC graphics processors as real-time systems. Previous work used a Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) to both drive the projector and trigger the camera, eliminating these timing issues, but still needing an external camera. This thesis proposes the incorporation of the camera with the FPGA SLI controller by means of a custom printed circuit board (PCB) design. Featuring a high speed image sensor as well as High Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI) input and output, this PCB enables the FPGA to perform SLI scans as well as pass through HDMI video to the projector for Spatial Augmented Reality (SAR) purposes. Minimizing ripple noise on the power supply by means of effective circuit design and PCB layout, realizes a compact and cost effective machine vision sensing solution.

This production journal acts as a public record of the journey to produce my MFA thesis film, Mirror, Mirror Perfected. Operating as a folktale, Mirror, Mirror Perfected is a hybrid speculative suspense film looking at our intersect with social media through the eyes of a young dancer in a near-future world. The journal includes notes from research during my time at the University of Iowa in New Media Studies, Sociology and Performance Studies. I explore how, for instance, the Narcissus myth attempts to influence my world through the liminality of instant gratification, technology, and the fragmentation of identity. The journal also accounts for the conceptual, personal, and practical considerations for the development of Mirror, Mirror Perfected since 2012.

Quantifying human posture and range of motion remains challenging due to the need for specific technologies, time for data collection and analysis, and space requirements. The demand for affordable and accessible human body position measurement requires alternative methods that cost less, are portable, and provide similar accuracy to expensive multi-camera systems. This thesis developed and evaluated a novel augmented reality mobile app for human posture measurement to bring marker-based body segment measurement to the point of patient contact. The augmented reality app provides live video of the person being measured, AprilTag2 fiducial markers locations in the video, processes marker data, and calculates angles and distances between markers. Results demonstrated that the mobile app can identify, track, and measure angles and distances between AprilTag2 markers attached to a human body in real-time with millimetre accuracy, thereby allowing researchers and clinicians to quantify posture measurements anywhere, at anytime.

The purpose of this study has been to investigate if the Pervasive GameFlow Model is suitable for evaluating Player Experience in Augmented Reality games. The work has described a definition of Augmented Reality, how it generally operates and reviewed common challenges when developing Augmented Reality applications. A prototype game has been developed, based on a previous concept of merging board games with computer games using Augmented Reality. After development, the game has been tested with a method based on the Pervasive GameFlow Model. Results showed the model to be suitable for future tests and evaluations, but did not produce data for evolving the game design. Generating such data would require execution of additional testing methods. / Syftet med denna studie har varit att undersöka om Pervasive GameFlow Modellen är lämplig för att utvärdera spelarupplevelse i Augmented Reality-spel. Arbetet har beskrivit en definition av Augmented Reality, hur det generellt fungerar och granskat vanliga utmaningar vid utveckling av Augmented Reality-applikationer. Ett prototypspel har utvecklats, baserat på ett tidigare koncept för att slå samman brädspel med datorspel med hjälp av Augmented Reality. Efter utveckling har spelet testats med en metod baserad på Pervasive GameFlow Modellen. Resultat visade att modellen var lämplig för framtida tester och utvärderingar, men producerade inte data för att utveckla speldesignen. Generering av sådan data skulle kräva utförande av ytterligare testmetoder.

Augmented Reality (AR) involves adding virtual content into real scenes. Scenes are viewed using a Head-Mounted Display or other display type. In order to place content into the user's view of a scene, the user's position and orientation relative to the scene, commonly referred to as their pose, must be determined accurately. This allows the objects to be placed in the correct positions and to remain there when the user moves or the scene changes. It is achieved by tracking the user in relation to their environment using a variety of technology. One technology which has proven to provide accurate results is computer vision. Computer vision involves a computer analysing images and achieving an understanding of them. This may be locating objects such as faces in the images, or in the case of AR, determining the pose of the user. One of the ultimate goals of AR systems is to be capable of operating under any condition. For example, a computer vision system must be robust under a range of different scene types, and under unpredictable environmental conditions due to variable illumination and weather. The majority of existing literature tests algorithms under the assumption of ideal or 'normal' imaging conditions. To ensure robustness under as many circumstances as possible it is also important to evaluate the systems under adverse conditions. This thesis seeks to analyse the effects that variable illumination has on computer vision algorithms. To enable this analysis, test data is required to isolate weather and illumination effects, without other factors such as changes in viewpoint that would bias the results. A new dataset is presented which also allows controlled viewpoint differences in the presence of weather and illumination changes. This is achieved by capturing video from a camera undergoing a repeatable motion sequence. Ground truth data is stored per frame allowing images from the same position under differing environmental conditions, to be easily extracted from the videos. An in depth analysis of six detection algorithms and five matching techniques demonstrates the impact that non-uniform illumination changes can have on vision algorithms. Specifically, shadows can degrade performance and reduce confidence in the system, decrease reliability, or even completely prevent successful operation. An investigation into approaches to improve performance yields techniques that can help reduce the impact of shadows. A novel algorithm is presented that merges reference data captured at different times, resulting in reference data with minimal shadow effects. This can significantly improve performance and reliability when operating on images containing shadow effects. These advances improve the robustness of computer vision systems and extend the range of conditions in which they can operate. This can increase the usefulness of the algorithms and the AR systems that employ them.

With increasing pressure to better manage the environment many government and private organisations are studying the relationships between social, economic and environmental factors to determine how they can best be optimised for increased sustainability. The analysis of such relationships are undertaken using computer-based Integrated Catchment Models (ICM). These models are capable of generating multiple scenarios depicting alternative land use alternatives at a variety of temporal and spatial scales, which present (potentially) better Triple-Bottom Line (TBL) outcomes than the prevailing situation. Dissemination of this data is (for the most part) reliant on traditional, static map products however, the ability of such products to display the complexity and temporal aspects is limited and ultimately undervalues both the knowledge incorporated in the models and the capacity of stakeholders to disseminate the complexities through other means. Geovisualization provides tools and methods for disseminating large volumes of spatial (and associated non-spatial) data. Virtual Environments (VE) have been utilised for various aspects of landscape planning for more than a decade. While such systems are capable of visualizing large volumes of data at ever-increasing levels of realism, they restrict the users ability to accurately perceive the (virtual) space. Augmented Reality (AR) is a visualization technique which allows users freedom to explore a physical space and have that space augmented with additional, spatially referenced information. A review of existing mobile AR systems forms the basis of this research. A theoretical mobile outdoor AR system using Common-Of-The-Shelf (COTS) hardware and open-source software is developed. The specific requirements for visualizing land use scenarios in a mobile AR system were derived using a usability engineering approach known as Scenario-Based Design (SBD). This determined the elements required in the user interfaces resulting in the development of a low-fidelity, computer-based prototype. The prototype user interfaces were evaluated using participants from two targeted stakeholder groups undertaking hypothetical use scenarios. Feedback from participants was collected using the cognitive walk-through technique and supplemented by evaluator observations of participants physical actions. Results from this research suggest that the prototype user interfaces did provide the necessary functionality for interacting with land use scenarios. While there were some concerns about the potential implementation of