Augmented Reality (AR) is a fast-emerging technology and it has been applied in many fields e.g. education, health, entertainment, gaming and tracking systems in logistics. AR technology combines the virtual world with the reality by superimposing digital information onto the physical world. This study evaluates the usability of the AR in industrial environment focusing on effectiveness, efficiency, and user acceptance in comparison to other instructional medium e.g. paper-based instructions or manuals. An AR prototype was developed to be used in the usability evaluation. To evaluate the AR application in the field of industry an experiment was conducted. To get the user experience and acceptance questionnaires and interviews were used involving real assembly workers where they used the AR prototype. The results of the study show that when using AR as assistance in the assembly assurance process, the number of faults and task completion time were reduced significantly compared to the traditional methods. Also, the users had a positive attitude and a high level of satisfaction when using AR.

La thèse porte sur un nouveau concept pour les afficheurs de réalité augmentée placés près de l’œil, notamment pour améliorer les champs de vision. Deux guides d'ondes sont empilés avec un petit espace d'air entre eux. La lumière couplée dans le premier guide d'ondes par le coupleur d’entrée se propage par réflexion interne totale jusqu'à atteindre un miroir cylindrique à l'extrémité du guide. Puis, la lumière réfléchie est couplée dans le second guide d'ondes avant d'atteindre le coupleur de sortie. Un système similaire basé sur des micro-prismes est aussi décrit. Les conceptions ont été simulées avec le logiciel Zemax. Les champs de vision horizontal et vertical obtenus sont respectivement de 30° et 60°. La Fonction de Transfert de Modulation pour tous les champs objets est supérieure à 30% pour 33 npl/mm, ce qui est suffisant pour un système visuel. De plus, un grand volume de déplacement admissible pour l’œil (Eye-box) d'environ 10×8 mm a été obtenu. / We propose a new concept to improve notably the fields-of-view (FOV) of the near to eye displays (NEDs) for augmented reality. Two waveguides are stacked with a small air gap between them. The light coupled in the first waveguide by the in-coupler propagates by total internal reflection until it reaches a cylindrical mirror at the end of the guide. Then, the reflected light is coupled in the second waveguide before to reach the out-coupler. A similar system based on micro-prisms is also described. The designs were simulated with Zemax software. The obtained horizontal and vertical FOV are respectively 30° and 60°. The Modulation Transfer Function for all object fields is greater than 30% for 33 npl/mm, which is sufficient for a visual system. In addition, a large Eye-box of approximately 10 × 8 mm was obtained.

Submitted by Felicitas Kemm (felicitas.kemm@gmx.de) on 2017-05-24T20:13:57Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Master Thesis - Felicitas Kemm.pdf: 1392022 bytes, checksum: 6518cce8abc7fb844ba77cef97cc26af (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Leiliane Silva (leiliane.silva@fgv.br) on 2017-05-25T12:35:25Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 Master Thesis - Felicitas Kemm.pdf: 1392022 bytes, checksum: 6518cce8abc7fb844ba77cef97cc26af (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-05-31T12:27:18Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Master Thesis - Felicitas Kemm.pdf: 1392022 bytes, checksum: 6518cce8abc7fb844ba77cef97cc26af (MD5) Previous issue date: 2017-04-05 / The present study aims to gain a better understanding of the reasons influencing the use of AR applied in marketing. Besides its promising success in the literature, there is still a risk that Augmented Reality does not add value to the company. Marketers must decide whether and how the technology can be applied in favor of the company. A case study research with three companies using or used Augmented Reality in their business was applied. The data were collected via semi-structured interviews with marketing experts’ from each company. Based on the findings of the interviews, the reasons why companies applied Augmented Reality are: the belief that there is a need for it, a better communication with their customers, the need to appear innovative, and a decrease in the return- and increase in the conversion rate. In fact, this research revealed that after the implementation of Augmented Reality two out of three companies had a better market performance in terms of an increase in the demand, or a better conversion rate, more time spent on the product page with the Augmented Reality tool, and a decrease in their return rate. However, one case also demonstrated that even though an increasing market performance, Augmented Reality can still fail due to reasons such as technical issues. / O presente estudo visa adquirir um melhor conhecimento das razões por detrás da utilização de AR em marketing. Para além do sucesso promissor sugerido pela literatura, existe ainda o risco de que Realidade Aumentada não adiciona valor à empresa. Marketers têm de decidir se e como a tecnologia pode ser utlizada em prol da empresa. Um estudo caso com três empresas diferentes que utilizam ou utilizaram Realidade Aumentada no seu negócio foi desenvolvido. Os dados foram recolhidos através de entrevistas semi-estruturadas com especialistas de marketing de cada empresa. Com base nos resultados das entrevistas, as razões pelas quais as empresas usam Realidade Aumentada são: a crença de que existe a necessidade dessa tecnologia, uma melhor comunicação com os seus clientes, a necessidade de transparecer inovação, e uma diminuição da taxa de devolução – e um aumento na taxa de conversão. De facto, este estudo demonstra que, após a implementação de Realidade Aumentada, duas das três empresas registaram um melhor desempenho no mercado em termos de um aumento da procura, ou de uma taxa de conversão superior, mais tempo dispendido na página do produto com a ferramenta de Realidade Aumentada, e uma diminuição da taxa de devolução. Contudo, um caso demonstrou também que, apesar de um melhor desempenho no mercado, a Realidade Aumentada pode contudo falhar devido a razões como problemas técnicos.

Durante muitos anos, diversas pesquisas na área de Design no Brasil, constataram limitados investimentos no desenvolvimento de produtos para auxiliar as pessoas com deficiência. Diante disso, esta tese teve por objetivo propor uma abordagem para os equipamentos de auxílio à comunicação de crianças com Transtorno do Espectro do Autismo (TEA) por meio do Design e da Realidade Aumentada (RA). Para o desenvolvimento da pesquisa foram realizadas pesquisa bibliográfica, pesquisa documental, Estudo de Caso e experimentos. Também foram realizadas observações das crianças com TEA, no ambiente da Associação de Pais e Amigos do Autista (AMA) da cidade de Florianópolis, para embasar a proposta de projeto de Prancha de Comunicação Alternativa e Aumentativa. A proposta resultante teve como base comum o produto prancha de comunicação que foi utilizada com aplicativo que utiliza Realidade Aumentada e está disponível no mercado. Nesta prancha de base o usuário aponta o dispositivo móvel para o pictograma e assim acessa e visualiza o vídeo que estabelece a comunicação transmitindo a ação que a criança realmente deseja executar. A base para a análise dos resultados foi a descrição detalhada dos casos por meio da apresentação de painéis representativos de cada criança por dia de aplicação e painéis comparativos de todas as crianças durante a realização do estudo. Evidenciam-se assim, os elementos indicadores de que a solução proposta apresenta vantagens em relação a algumas pranchas atualmente existentes e que pode contribuir para facilitar a comunicação e a interação não só das crianças com TEA, mas também de outras crianças com limitações na comunicação. / For many years, several studies in the area of Design in Brazil have founded limited investments in product development to help people with desabilities. Therefore, the aim of this thesis was to propose an approach to the equipment to aid the communication of children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) through Design and Augmented Reality (AR). For the development of the research were carried out bibliographic and documental researches, case studies and experiments. Observations were also made of the children with ASD in the Association of Parents and Friends of the Autistic (AMA) of Florianópolis to base the project proposal of the Alternative and Increasing Communication Board. The resulting proposal was based on the common product board that was developed together with an Augmented Reality mobile application available on the market. On this basis board the user points the mobile device to the pictogram and thus accesses and visualizes the video which establishes the communication and transmittes the action that the child really wants to perform. Thus, there is evidence that the proposed solution has advantages over some existing boards and can contribute to facilitate the communication and interaction not only of children with ASD, but also of other children with communication limitations.

abstract: The present study explored the use of augmented reality (AR) technology to support cognitive modeling in an art-based learning environment. The AR application used in this study made visible the thought processes and observational techniques of art experts for the learning benefit of novices through digital annotations, overlays, and side-by-side comparisons that when viewed on mobile device appear directly on works of art. Using a 2 x 3 factorial design, this study compared learner outcomes and motivation across technologies (audio-only, video, AR) and groupings (individuals, dyads) with 182 undergraduate and graduate students who were self-identified art novices. Learner outcomes were measured by post-activity spoken responses to a painting reproduction with the pre-activity response as a moderating variable. Motivation was measured by the sum score of a reduced version of the Instructional Materials Motivational Survey (IMMS), accounting for attention, relevance, confidence, and satisfaction, with total time spent in learning activity as the moderating variable. Information on participant demographics, technology usage, and art experience was also collected. Participants were randomly assigned to one of six conditions that differed by technology and grouping before completing a learning activity where they viewed four high-resolution, printed-to-scale painting reproductions in a gallery-like setting while listening to audio-recorded conversations of two experts discussing the actual paintings. All participants listened to expert conversations but the video and AR conditions received visual supports via mobile device. Though no main effects were found for technology or groupings, findings did include statistically significant higher learner outcomes in the elements of design subscale (characteristics most represented by the visual supports of the AR application) than the audio-only conditions. When participants saw digital representations of line, shape, and color directly on the paintings, they were more likely to identify those same features in the post-activity painting. Seeing what the experts see, in a situated environment, resulted in evidence that participants began to view paintings in a manner similar to the experts. This is evidence of the value of the temporal and spatial contiguity afforded by AR in cognitive modeling learning environments. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Educational Technology 2016

abstract: Environmental remote sensing has seen rapid growth in the recent years and Doppler wind lidars have gained popularity primarily due to their non-intrusive, high spatial and temporal measurement capabilities. While lidar applications early on, relied on the radial velocity measurements alone, most of the practical applications in wind farm control and short term wind prediction require knowledge of the vector wind field. Over the past couple of years, multiple works on lidars have explored three primary methods of retrieving wind vectors viz., using homogeneous windfield assumption, computationally extensive variational methods and the use of multiple Doppler lidars. Building on prior research, the current three-part study, first demonstrates the capabilities of single and dual Doppler lidar retrievals in capturing downslope windstorm-type flows occurring at Arizona’s Barringer Meteor Crater as a part of the METCRAX II field experiment. Next, to address the need for a reliable and computationally efficient vector retrieval for adaptive wind farm control applications, a novel 2D vector retrieval based on a variational formulation was developed and applied on lidar scans from an offshore wind farm and validated with data from a cup and vane anemometer installed on a nearby research platform. Finally, a novel data visualization technique using Mixed Reality (MR)/ Augmented Reality (AR) technology is presented to visualize data from atmospheric sensors. MR is an environment in which the user's visual perception of the real world is enhanced with live, interactive, computer generated sensory input (in this case, data from atmospheric sensors like Doppler lidars). A methodology using modern game development platforms is presented and demonstrated with lidar retrieved wind fields. In the current study, the possibility of using this technology to visualize data from atmospheric sensors in mixed reality is explored and demonstrated with lidar retrieved wind fields as well as a few earth science datasets for education and outreach activities. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Mechanical Engineering 2017

abstract: Electronic books or eBooks have the potential to revolutionize the way humans read and learn. eBooks offer many advantages such as simplicity, ease of use, eco-friendliness, and portability. The advancement of technology has introduced many forms of multimedia objects into eBooks, which may help people learn from them. To help the readers understand and comprehend a concept that is put forward by the author of an eBook, there is ongoing research involving the use of augmented reality (AR) in education. This study explores how AR and three-dimensional interactive models are integrated into eBooks to help the readers comprehend the content quickly and swiftly. It compares the reading activities of people when they experience these two visual representations within an eBook. This study required participants to interact with some instructional material presented on an eBook and complete a learning measure. While interacting with the eBook, participants were equipped with a set of physiological devices, namely an ABM EEG headset and eye tracker during the experiment to collect biometric data that could be used to objectively measure their user experience. Fifty college students participated in this study. The data collected from each of the participants was used to analyze the reading activities of people by performing an Independent Samples t-test. / Dissertation/Thesis / Masters Thesis Computer Science 2017

La thèse s'inscrit dans le domaine de la vision par ordinateur. Il s'agit, dans un environnement intérieur inconnu, partiellement connu ou connu de trouver la position et l'orientation d'une camera mobile en temps réel à partir d'une séquence vidéo prise par cette même camera. Le sujet implique également la reconstruction 3D de l'environnement. Les algorithmes de vision seront implémentés et testés sur des plateformes massivement parallèles. Processing the video sequence of a indoor camera in motion we have to find the position and angle of the camera in real time. We will use a single prime lens camera. It may involve an unknown, partially known or well known environment. A big part of the computation is the 3D reconstruction of the scene. The algorithms used to locate the camera will be implemented and tested on GPU. / In this thesis, we explore the problem of modeling an unknown environment using monocular vision for localization applications. We focus in modeling dynamic indoor environments. Many objects in indoor environments are likely to be moved. These movements significantly affect the structure and appearance of the environment and disrupt the existing methods of visual localization. We present in this work a new approach for modeling the environment and its evolution with time. We define explicitly the scene as a static structure and a set of dynamic objects. The object is defined as a rigid entity that a user can take, move and that is visually detectable. First, we show how to automatically discover new objects in a dynamic environment. Existing methods of visual localization simply ignore the inconsistencies due to changes in the scene. We aim to analyze these changes to extract additional information. Without any prior knowledge, an object is a set of points with coherent motion relative to the static structure of the scene. We combine two methods of visual localization to compare various explorations in the same environment taken at different time. The comparison enables to detect objects that have moved between the two shots. For each object, a geometric model and an appearance model are learned. Moreover, we extend the scene model while updating the metrical map and the topological map of the static structure of the environment. Object discovery using motion is based on a new algorithm of multiple structures detection in an image pair. Given a set of correspondences between two views, the method based on RANSAC extracts the different structures corresponding to different model parameterizations seen in the data. The method is applied to homography estimation to detect planar structures and to fundamental matrix estimation to detect structures that have been shifted one from another. Our approach for dynamic scene modeling is applied in a new formulation of place recognition to take into account the presence of dynamic objects in the environment. The model of the place consists in an appearance model of the static structure observed in that place. An object database is learned from previous observations in the environment with the method of object discovery using motion. The place recognition we propose detects the dynamic objects seen in the place and rejects the false detection due to these objects. The different methods described in this dissertation are tested on synthetic and real data. Qualitative and quantitative results are presented throughout the dissertation.

Nous nous intéressons à l'interaction dans le contexte de la Réalité Augmentée sur dispositifs mobiles. Le dispositif mobile est utilisé comme une lentille magique qui 'augmente' la perception de l'environnement physique avec du contenu numérique. Nous nous sommes particulièrement intéressés aux relations spatiales entre le contenu affiché à l'écran et l'environnement physique. En effet la combinaison des environnements physique et numérique repose sur ces relations spatiales, comme l'adaptation de l'augmentation numérique en fonction de la localisation de l'utilisateur. Mais ces relations spatiales définissent aussi des contraintes pour l'interaction. Par exemple l'effet des tremblements naturels de la main rend instable la vidéo affichée sur l'écran du dispositif mobile et par conséquent a un impact direct sur la précision d'interaction. La question est alors, comment peut-on relâcher ces contraintes spatiales pour améliorer l'interaction sans pour autant casser la co-localisation physique-numérique. Nous apportons trois contributions. Tout d'abord, nous avons établi un espace de conception décrivant le contenu affiché à l'écran dans le contexte de la Réalité Augmentée sur dispositifs mobiles. Cet espace conceptuel met en exergue les relations spatiales entre les différents repères des composants le structurant. Cet espace permet d'étudier systématiquement la conception de techniques d'interaction dans le contexte de la Réalité Augmentée sur dispositifs mobiles. Deuxièmement, nous avons conçu des techniques de pointage améliorant la précision du pointage en Réalité Augmentée sur supports mobiles. Ces techniques de pointage ont été évaluées lors d'expériences utilisateur. Enfin, dans le cadre du projet en partenariat AIST-Tuskuba, Schneider France et Schneider Japon dans lequel s'inscrit cette thèse, nous avons développé une boîte à outils pour le développement d'applications de Réalité Augmentée sur dispositifs mobiles. Cette boîte à outils a été utilisée pour développer plusieurs démonstrateurs. / We explored interaction within the context of handheld Augmented Reality (AR), where a handheld device is used as a physical magic lens to 'augment' the physical surrounding. We focused, in particular, on the role of spatial relations between the on-screen content and the physical surrounding. On the one hand, spatial relations define opportunities for mixing environments, such as the adaptation of the digital augmentation to the user's location. On the other hand, spatial relations involve specific constraints for interaction such as the impact of hand tremor on on-screen camera image stability. The question is then, how can we relax spatial constraints while maintaining the feeling of digital-physical collocation. Our contribution is three-fold. First, we propose a design space for handheld AR on-screen content with a particular focus on the spatial relations between the different identified frames of reference. This design space defines a framework for systematically studying interaction with handheld AR applications. Second, we propose and evaluate different handheld AR pointing techniques to improve pointing precision. Indeed, with handheld AR set-up, both touch-screen input and the spatial relations between the on-screen content and the physical surrounding impair the precision of pointing. Third, as part of a collaborative research project involving AIST-Tsukuba and Schneider- France and Japan, we developed a toolkit supporting the development of handheld AR applications. The toolkit has been used to develop several demonstrators.

Augmented reality (AR) has emerged as a new interactive technology that enables marketers to craft an immersive experience for customers. The technology complaints the physical environment with virtual objects, and thus have the unique power to put the (virtual) product in the hands of the consumer. This provides marketers with a new option for reaching out and engaging with customers. Although the AR market is estimated to grow exponentially by the year 2023, little is known about how AR-applications on smart devices influence customer experience. This thesis addresses the research gap by exploring how IKEA Place, an AR-application, influences customer experience. By using a conceptual framework of online customer experience we explore how different antecedents influence the experience with AR. Furthermore, the study also highlight the differences between a website and an AR-application, and thus give a more nuanced understanding about AR. As the majority of the research on AR-technology has a quantitative approach, this study was done through a qualitative study using a quasi-experimental design. The empirical result indicates that aesthetics, ease-of-use, telepresence and assortment influence customer experience extensively. Moreover, the result also suggests that hedonic value influences the augmented experience more than the utilitarian, and thus customers do not perceive the application to fulfil their utility needs.