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AUGMENTED REALITY Perspectives
SUDHIR MENON – Lead Architect
Wipro Technologies

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Definition and Concept
Augmented reality (AR) is the integration of digital information with live video from the user's
environment in real time providing the user with additional information about their current environment.
Augmented reality (AR), involves overlaying a live video stream, such as one from the camera on a
mobile phone, with a layer of data associated with the live stream using various contextual clues from
the live stream in the form of “markers” to identify the location and/or position of various objects in the
live stream. This data will help the end user in entertainment, informational, advertising, education etc.,
Augmented reality applications use webcams or the cameras of smart phones or other devices to
capture real-world images and then lay text, links or other objects over the images on the screen used
to display the feed from the camera. With this type of app, you can point the camera of an Internet-
enabled device at a building or landmark and receive helpful information about it right on your screen.
This would help end users experience the touch of the screen or highlighted areas without physically
clicking or moving
How it Works?
Augmented reality applications in general are triggered by camera of various devices such as PC;
Camera and the application will interpret the image to understand the location and fetch the associated
content from within the enterprise/web and overlay the image with the information. The basic idea of
augmented reality is to superimpose graphics, audio and other sensory enhancements over a real-
world environment in real time
Relevance to Customer Reduce cost of end user education:
One of the challenges faced by Customers that the correct usage of their cleaning products is not well
known to the field staff. The field staff typically has to undergo training about the product before they
can use it reliably in the field. Execution of this training program in the training staff where the attrition
rates are high poses a serious challenge. Thus there is no easy mechanism to ensure compliance to
the training processes for the products.
AR can be used to provide user level training and guidance using various mechanisms such as PC,
mobile phone, where a partner or vendor can trigger a AR application by the camera of PC or Mobile
phone helping them in terms of context sensitive support on product details, help and mechanisms to
contact for any specific support and different visualization levels on how each of these products would
be put to use.

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This works by product tagging with special codes which when triggered by end user would extract
online / real time information with multi-tiered back end systems. Users would use a “marker” or in
other terms it can be called a QR code which the user holds up to a web camera/pc camera which can
trigger the augmented reality experience. AR apps usually first list the place of interest that's closest to
you in the direction you're pointing, followed by other places that are farther away; they tap mapping
information from their databases to provide you with directions to more distant objects and use
navigational techniques to retrieve information.
Digital Advertising – for Sales and Marketing: Technology layering to setup a digital advertising
platform for selective products such as interactive consumer experience on the touch of the product
and feeling the product before buying. Each of the products would be tagged and specific sensitive
touch to parts would retrieve information about the product and also it would interact with mobile / pc to
get more information about the product on a dynamic state. We can also visualize building a digital
kiosk book which can showcase all the products from virtual imagery from the history of Customers
products for consumers to interact.
Understanding complex manufacturing plant systems: AR would be used for internal or exploded
views of complex components within CUSTOMER manufacturing plants for simplifying the process
and guiding the operator. In a manufacturing, we would use AR for training the users on complex
systems as he operates the product and provide instructions on violation; this will be handy when
managing complex equipment.
Augmented Training with Mixed Reality: Hands-on with complex equipment and work scenarios, this
is a key scenario as an extension to the use case above when the end-users partners, vendors can
get interactive training and information on products with touch technology and visualization. Think
beyond the class room and virtual room and get a feel of the environment with sensors, landscapes
and information path which would help users learn with exploration.
IT Landscaping and Direction : AR can also be used to visualize internally the entire Customer setup
from a single location where it can be used as a Road / Direction map where the customer / visitor or
vendor would use the same to know the exploded view of information , this is in line with the modern
navigational system . This system can be extended to building context sensitive information about the
various functions and products internal to Customer and these can triggered by human interface or
mobile phone kind of interfaces

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Some Other Application Summary of Augmented
Reality
Mobile Advertising: Marketers started to use AR to promote products via interactive AR applications.
For example a largest retailer, ran a circular with an augmented reality code that allowed users with a
webcam to interact with the product in 3D. This would be used in different context in Customers to
enhance the interactive capability and reach of the application with experiencing before buying.
Support with complex tasks: Complex tasks such as assembly, maintenance, and surgery can be
simplified by inserting additional information into the field of view. For example, labels can be
displayed on parts of a system to clarify operating instructions for a mechanic who is performing
maintenance on the system.
Navigation devices: AR can augment the effectiveness of navigation devices for a variety of
applications. For example, building navigation can be enhanced for the purpose of maintaining
industrial plants. Outdoor navigation can be augmented for military operations or disaster
management.
Industrial Applications: AR can be used to compare the data of digital mock-ups with physical mock-
ups for efficiently finding discrepancies between the two sources. It can further be employed to
safeguard digital data in combination with existing real prototypes, and thus save or minimize the
building of real prototypes and improve the quality of the final product.
Technologies and Components
AR applications require a suite of hardware and software capabilities to be realized. We have
attempted to give an overview of various hardware and software components that are being used to
implement AR.
Display
Different types of displays would be used based on the complexity of the application.
Some of the major display techniques for Augmented Reality:
Standard handheld Displays
Regular desktop displays
Head Mounted Displays

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Spatial Displays
Tracking
Modern mobile augmented reality systems use one or more of the following tracking technologies:
digital cameras and/or other optical sensors, accelerometers, GPS, gyroscopes, solid state
compasses, RFID, wireless sensors. Each of these technologies has different levels of accuracy and
precision. Most important is the tracking of the pose and position of the user's head for the
augmentation of the user's view. The user's hand(s) can be tracked or a handheld input device could
be tracked to provide a 6DOF interaction technique.
Input devices
This is a current open research question. Some systems, such as the Tinmith system, employ pinch
glove techniques. Another common technique is a wand with a button on it. In case of Smartphone,
phone itself could be used as 3D pointing device, with 3D position of the phone restored from the
camera images.
Computer
Camera based systems require powerful CPU and considerable amount of RAM for processing
camera images. Wearable computing systems employ a laptop in a backpack configuration. Sound
processing hardware could be included in augmented reality systems
Software
For consistent merging real-world images from camera and virtual 3D images, virtual images should
be attached to real-world locations in visually realistic way. That means a real world coordinate
system, independent from the camera, should be restored from camera images. That process is called
Image registration.

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WIPRO CONFIDENTIALWIPRO CONFIDENTIAL
INDUSTRY SOLUTIONS & TECHNOLOGY GROUP (ISTG)
sudhir.menon@wipro.com
Software API/Links to Develop AR Application
ARToolkit
ARToolKit is a software library for building Augmented Reality (AR) applications. These are applications that
involve the overlay of virtual imagery on the real world
http://www.hitl.washington.edu/artoolkit/
osgArt Toolkit :
osgART is a C++ cross-platform development library that simplifies the development of Augmented Reality or
Mixed Reality applications by combining computer vision based tracking libraries.
http://www.osgart.org/wiki/Main_Page
SLARToolkit:
SLARToolkit is a flexible Augmented Reality library for Silverlight with the aim to make real time Augmented
Reality applications with Silverlight as easy and fast as possible. It can be used with the Webcam API that
was introduced in Silverlight 4 or with any other CaptureSource or a WriteableBitmap
http://slartoolkit.codeplex.com/