Microsoft HoloLens is a headmounted augmented reality system providing users the ability to experience three-dimensional virtual content. This could be used in applications aimed at industry where users could use augmented reality to easily access information and receive instructions. For this to be suitable for industry, the system must be robust. One property of robustness was chosen for this thesis: system performance in conditions of different levels of light. A prototype implementing a use case for future industry was developed, as well as two additional smaller applications to facilitate experiments. Experiments were performed to investigate how different light levels affects the functionality in a 3D holographic application running on HoloLens and how the visibility of virtual content was affected in conditions with bright and heterogeneous backgrounds. The results showed that the functionality of the holographic application was not significantly affected except in very dark conditions, and that bright and messy backgrounds pose a problem to hologram visibility.

Submitted by Fabio Sobreira Campos da Costa (fabio.sobreira@ufpe.br) on 2016-01-18T13:14:50Z No. of bitstreams: 2 license_rdf: 1232 bytes, checksum: 66e71c371cc565284e70f40736c94386 (MD5) dissertacao_manoela_silva.pdf: 36581423 bytes, checksum: d8c07c2d0fe78c155c2e4ab98bc705f2 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2016-01-18T13:14:50Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 license_rdf: 1232 bytes, checksum: 66e71c371cc565284e70f40736c94386 (MD5) dissertacao_manoela_silva.pdf: 36581423 bytes, checksum: d8c07c2d0fe78c155c2e4ab98bc705f2 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2015-08-31 / CNPq / Augmented Reality technology (AR) has a huge potential to be applied in the education field. The coexistence of real and virtual environments enables experiences that would not be possible without this technology. Some of the reasons why AR learning experiences differ from other technology are: (i) it enables contextualized interaction between real and virtual worlds, (ii) it enables tangible interaction metaphors for object manipulation, and, finally, (iii) it enables smooth transition between the real and virtual contents. While AR offers new learning opportunities, it also creates new challenges for education in different domains, such as technological, learning and pedagogical issues. This work intends to provide some reflections about the challenges involved in the process of evaluating AR educational technologies. In order to better understand those issues, a systematic review was carried out aiming to identify how AR technology has been evaluated. Taking into account lessons learned during the review, a projective educational AR tool, especially designed to young children education, the ARBlocks, was evaluated. This tool was evaluated in the field of language learning with three different groups. The study involved the teacher as an instructional designer along with the use of multiple metrics. From the analysis of the ARBlocks in the classrooms, it was possible to observe that this tool offered different possibilities for language teaching to young children. The results obtained demonstrated that, in general, the ARblocks contributed to student’s learning and the practice and reinforcement of language abilities. From the reflections presented, some guidelines were proposed in order to assist the evaluation of AR educational tools. The use of multiple metrics as well as the active involvement of teachers in the elaboration of contents are encouraged as way to better understand the impact of technology in the teaching and learning process. / A tecnologia de Realidade Aumentada (RA) possui grande potencial de aplicação na área educativa. A coexistência de ambientes reais e virtuais abre possibilidades de aprendizado que não poderiam ser possíveis sem este tipo de tecnologia. Algumas razões pelas quais experiências de aprendizagem com RA se diferem das demais são: (i) suporte a uma interação contextualizada entre ambientes reais e virtuais, (ii) uso de metáforas com interfaces tangíveis para manipulação de objetos e, por fim, (iii) a habilidade de transição suave entre o real e o virtual. Enquanto oferece inúmeras novas oportunidades de aprendizagem, a introdução de novas tecnologias com RA cria desafios em diferentes domínios, como o tecnológico, de aprendizagem e os desafios pedagógicos. Este trabalho visa prover algumas reflexões acerca dos desafios envolvidos no processo de avaliação de tecnologias educativas com RA. Como forma de melhor compreender essas questões, foi realizada uma revisão sistemática com vistas a identificar como são realizadas avaliações de ferramentas educacionais com RA. A partir da revisão empreendida, foram observadas as principais formas de avaliação de ferramentas educativas envolvendo esta tecnologia. A partir destes conhecimentos adquiridos, foi realizada a avaliação de uma ferramenta educativa baseada em RA projetiva, especialmente desenvolvida para o ensino infantil, o ARBlocks. Tal ferramenta foi avaliada no campo da aprendizagem de novas línguas com três grupos distintos. O estudo envolveu o professor como instructional designer, bem como o uso de múltiplas métricas de avaliação. A partir da análise do ARBlocks em sala de aula, foi possível observar que esta ferramenta oferece inúmeras possibilidades para o ensino de línguas para crianças pequenas. Os resultados obtidos demonstraram que, no geral, o ARBlocks auxiliou no processo de aprendizagem dos estudantes e na prática e reforço das habilidades linguísticas. A partir das reflexões apresentadas, alguns guidelines foram propostos com vistas a auxiliar na avaliação de ferramentas educativas com RA. O uso de múltiplas métricas e o envolvimento ativo dos professores na elaboração dos conteúdos é encorajado como forma de melhor compreender os impactos provocados pela tecnologia no processo de ensino-aprendizagem.

This thesis describes how augmented reality can be used when developing an instructional application. After studying augmented reality apps and papers, a prototype for mobile devices was developed to discover the possibilities that augmented reality offers and show how issues inherent to the technology can be solved. The app was developed with usability in mind, with consideration for how well suited each feature was for augmented reality. Our results show that it is possible to use augmented reality in instructional apps, but that there are issues to consider when working with augmented reality. Among others, we discuss how to deal with the three dimensionality of the interface, augmented reality's physical requirements, and the quality of the tracking that aligns the interface with the real world. Augmented reality also enables plenty of new functionality for apps, like the ability to use physical movement as input and to essentially bind information to a real, physical place. The app was tested and built for an advanced machine. We built guides that use animated instructions to teach the user how to complete a task. There is also an information view that displays details about parts of the machine and an overview that helps the user find parts. We also took efforts to generalize the process, so that the app can be adjusted to suit a variety of products.

While operating a vehicle it is important to pay close attention to things such asdriving environment, other vehicles and your own vehicle. Developing a high level ofsituational awareness can be very beneficial for driving safety as it helps with makingdecisions.The purpose of this thesis is to investigate and explore how we can use augmentedreality to increase the situational awareness of a heavy vehicle operator. Our approachto solving this problem is to use the double diamond design method along with aliterary investigation in order to solve the correct problem, in the best way possible.For evaluation we did user testing and questionnaires to measure mental workloadand situational awareness. In this work we produced a prototype augmented realityapplication which we used in our tests. User feedback were almost entirely positive.

Augmented reality is an interesting technology which has increased in popularity the last couple of years. Even though we see more and more of this technology the use of it doesn’t match up to its true potential. This paper aims to investigate the possibilities of this technology and illustrate how companies can use it in their business to reach out to customers in a new and exciting way. The study consists of three parts. The first part explores what companies have done today with augmented reality, which companies are of interest for this technology and how they can use it. The second part investigates who the user of augmented reality is today and who tomorrow’s user will be. The third part goes through the technology behind augmented reality. This part investigates what is possible to do today and which techniques are the most common. These three steps are then combined and make the foundation of a prototype which will illustrate how a business can adopt augmented reality. Interviews of potential users reveal that these kinds of artifacts are needed by the public, for example, to visualizing products from the internet in the customers own home environment. Conclusions from the literature study and from the development of the prototype disclose that augmented reality have a lot of problems that needs to be solved before it will be accepted by a wider public audience. These problem areas range from camera quality to standardization of markers, but like all new technology these problems have solutions and eventually augmented reality will be a natural part of our lives.

The present thesis is concerned with the problem of robust pose estimation for planar targets in the context of real-time mobile vision. As a consequence of this research, individual developments made in isolation by earlier researchers are here considered together. Several adaptations to the existing algorithms are undertaken yielding a unified framework for robust pose estimation. This framework is specifically designed to meet the growing demand for fast and robust estimation on power-constrained platforms. For robust recognition of targets at very low computational costs, we employ feature based methods which are based on local binary descriptors allowing fast feature matching at run-time. The matching set is then fed to a robust parameter estimation algorithm in order to obtain a reliable homography. On the basis of our experimental results, it can be concluded that reliable homography estimates can be obtained using a device-friendly implementation of the Gaussian Elimination algorithm. We also show in this thesis that our simplified approach can significantly improve the homography estimation step in a hypothesize-and-verify scheme. The author's attention is focused not only on developing fast algorithms for the recognition framework but also on the optimized implementation of such algorithms. Any other recognition framework would similarly benefit from our optimized implementation.

This diploma thesis summarizes the principles of augmented reality and the possibilities how this technology could be used in the work of designers. The thesis also describes the possibilities of realizing an augmented reality (AR) program and compares specific AR devices. The process of the designer's work is also analyzed, and concepts how AR could be used during the work process were designed. One concept of use has been implemented. It was a visual-ization of new constructed parts of autonomous robot, developed in project "FOLLOWme". The designers will use this program to detect collisions between parts and verify overall design of the robot.

Augmented reality has in recent years become a topic that’s frequently discussed among business managers and marketing practitioners, due to the findings that support the technology's ability to influence consumer behavior. The technology is offering consumers exceedingly product information, a pleasurable shopping experience and a greater interactive interface. Previous research surrounding augmented reality has been with in the bounds of the makeup and furniture industry to enable these findings. Now the interest stands within how augmented reality technology can be implemented in the clothing retail industry. The purposeof this study is to map out the consumer's experience of trying out virtual clothes through mobile augmented reality and find out if the technology can facilitate consumers to completea purchase decision online during a buying process of physical clothes. The study conducted participatory observations as well as semi structed interviews with the participants,further more the empirical findings were analyzed through a thematic analyzing method. What the study discovered was that certain aspects of the technology supports previous research done on augmented reality and other aspects deviated from earlier findings. Additionally, the study found that consumers would consider clothing testing through mobile augmented reality if it was implemented by a clothing retail company. / Augmented reality har under de senaste åren blivit ett återkommande ämne bland företagsledare och marknadsförare på grund av att tidigare forskning påvisat att teknologin kan ha inflytande på konsumentbeteenden. Teknologin erbjuder konsumenter tilläggande information om produkten, en njutbar shoppingupplevelse och en interaktiv samverkan mellan individ och objekt. Tidigare forskning som behandlat augmented reality har begränsats till områdena smink- och möbelindustrin för att komma fram till dessa resultat. Det finns nu ett intresse att se hur augmented reality teknologin kan bli implementerad i klädesindustrin. Studiens syfte är att kartlägga konsumenters upplevelse av att prova virtuella kläder genom mobile augmented reality och finna svar på om det kan underlätta för konsumenten att slutföra ett köpbeslut online vid en köpprocess av fysiska kläder. Undersökningen genomförde deltagande observationer och individuella semistrukturerade intervjuer med deltagarna, vidare analyserades empirin genomen en tematisk analysmetod. Undersökengen kom fram till att vissa aspekter av teknologin stödjer tidigare forskningsresultat och andra visades vara särskiljande. Vidare fann denna forskning att konsumenter kan tänka sig använda mobile augmented reality om det implementerats av ett detaljhandelsföretag inom klädindustrin.

With its capability of merging virtual and real worlds, Augmented Reality (AR) provides a new framework for professional practices in numerous disciplines: it can deliver interactive pieces of information in real-time and in space. In music, such capabilities can have an important role in music notation and interfaces for electronic music performance. Numerous experimental musical applications have been developed since the early 2000s both for education and performance. However, in most circumstances, AR has been seen more as an aide towards the understanding and/or realization of traditional repertoire rather than a game-changing technology able to foster new artistic practices. There are still many uses yet to be explored, especially concerning compositional practice This dissertation also paves the way to a new repertoire in which the unprecedented possibilities offered by AR might be fully adopted and developed. This is an explorative work, structured mainly by a series of articles written solely by the author and published during his PhD studies (or accepted for publication at the time of writing). In these papers, a set of differentiated applications and compositions in the AR field are realized. The main thread that links all of the studies lies in the investigation of the relationship between AR and gesture-based musical practices (such as gesture-based control of spatialization and AR augmented instruments). A central role played by gesture-based music notation is the capability to notate a gesture in the space, with its exact coordinates and its exact velocity. Such a novel form of notation, enabled by AR technology and impossible in other domains, can also be enriched with interactive capabilities. As discussed in some studies included in this dissertation, virtual objects assigned to notational functions can also be assigned, simultaneously, to interface functions, thus creating interface-notation hybrids. Other studies of this dissertation address the capability of a virtual object changing its functions over time: AR notation can also be transformed into a virtual performer or into a visual augmentation of gesture. Another hopeful contribution of this dissertation to the musical use of AR lies in providing technical explanations of implementation procedures that could serve as a background for the creation of best practices

Augmented reality, the superimposing of graphics or text onto an actual visual scene, is intended to enhance a user's understanding of the real world. This research examines the perceptual, cognitive, and human factors implications of combining integrally designed computer-generated imagery with real world scenes. Three experiments were conducted to test the theoretical and practical consequences of integral perception in augmented reality. The first experiment was a psychophysical study that had participants subjectively assess the integrality of 32 scenes comprising four different augmented reality object environments (computer, brain, text, and liquid dynamic model), projected at two transparency levels (opaque, and semi-transparent), and presented with four different graphic textures (color, grayscale, white, and wireframe). The second experiment expanded the psychophysical integrality assessment of augmented scenes to 32 different images composed of four new environments (housing development, computer lab, planetary photo, and trees in countryside), with multiple computer-generated graphics (two, four, six, and eight), at two levels of integrality as defined by experiment one (high, low). The third experiment was an applied study that had two phases: 1) learning tasks using three augmented environments; and, 2) assembly tasks using eight augmented video instructions. The computer-generated graphics for each phase of experiment three were presented at two levels of integrality (high, low) as defined by experiment one. The primary results of the three experiments show that augmented reality scenes with computer-generated imagery presented transparently and in color were perceived most integrally; increasing the number of graphics from two to eight decreased integral perception; and, high integral graphics aided performance in learning and real assembly tasks. From the statistical results and experimenter observation of the three experiments, guidelines for designing integrally perceived graphics in augmented environments were compiled based on principles of human factors, perception, and graphic design. The key themes of the design guidelines were: 1) maintaining true shape information in the computer-generated graphics 2) using highly realistic graphics for naturalistic augmented settings; 3) considering the hardware limitations of the augmented system, particularly the display; and, 4) designing appropriately for the task (simple, complex, hands-on, cognitive, dynamic, static, etc.). / Ph. D.