Mobile Augmented Reality: Evolving Human-Computer Interaction

Background

Augmented Reality (AR) is an extension of reality by means of the addition of virtual information that complements the reality perceived by the user. This extension can be composed of 3D virtual objects, textual information, sounds, odors, holograms, and any other artifact with which the user can be in contact. Mobile devices, being carried by a vast majority of users, make possible to talk about mobile augmented reality. Mobile augmented reality can be defined as the perceived augmented reality via devices that users always carry with them. Technology used in augmented reality has been evolved during many years. A brief historical review is presented below to give a wide conception of the evolution of the human-computer interaction through augmented reality, and before to close this section, current technology, that makes possible the mobile augmented reality, is described.

1929 was the year when Edwin Link introduced “The Link Flight Trainer” (Committee, 2000); the first flight trainer used with the intention to train pilots at the same time of avoiding accidents and reducing costs. Through this mechanical airplane, the pilot could acquire skills to manipulate all the instruments without risks. Three years later, in 1932, Sir Charles Wheatstone invented the Stereoscope (Bowers, 2001); with this device, it was possible to observe the first 3D scene generated from two slightly different pictures. The possibility to interact with a 3D world was a motivation for researchers to develop new ways of human-computer interaction. Morton Heilig, in 1962 (U.S. Patent No. 3050870, 1962) creates the “Sensorama”; a machine that incorporates stereoscopic images, sounds, movements of the viewer, and odors to produce a feeling of immersion in the virtual scene. Following the idea of generate a virtual world within which the user can interact, Ivan Sutherland in 1965 thought about “The Ultimate Display” (Sutherland, 1965) as a room where a computer could create things that users would perceive, feel, and use.