AR 101 — Components of the Augmented Reality System (Part 3)
What is the basic process of an Augmented Reality system, and what are its main components of Hardware and Software?
In this article, you will find:
- The basic process of Augmented Reality, and
- The main component of Hardware and Software.
Basic Augmented Reality Process
The basic process of how Augmented Reality works can be divided into three steps (Craig, 2013):
- Input: One or more sensors capture information from the real-world.
- Processing: The processing unit interprets the data acquired through different hardware and software resources.
- Output: It displays the user both information providing the feeling that virtual objects are part of the real-world.
Components of an Augmented Reality System
An Augmented Reality System can be divided into two components: one is hardware, and the other is software (Craig, 2013)(Chatzopoulos, 2017).
Hardware
The main characteristic of the hardware components is to acquire and display the data and information, and process it.
- Input — Sensors: Different types of sensors that respond to physical or chemical stimuli from the real environment and provide the necessary data for the development of the system.
- Output — Display: The devices for displaying the information can be divided into wearable and non-wearable. But it can also be classified into optical, video, and projection devices.
Optical See-through Display tthe virtual contents are projected onto the interface to mix with the real scene optically. For example, DAQRI, HoloLens, Moverio.
Video See-through Display has two work modalities: One uses HMD devices, and the other works with camera and screen in handheld devices. For example, smartphones and tablets.
Software
The main characteristic of software components is to interpret the acquired data to transform and augmented it.
- High-level: Currently, several tools help in the development of applications, known as SDK (Software Development Kit), such as Vuforia, ARKit, ARCore, Wikitude, ARtoolKit, EasyAR, LayAR.
- Low-level consists of different areas, which may vary according to the application or the developer’s needs, such as programming libraries, Computer vision, CG, Image processing, HCI.
For those looking for all the articles in our AR 101 series. Here is the link.
References
- A.B. Craig. Understanding Augmented Reality: Concepts and Applications. Elsevier Science, 2013.
- D. Chatzopoulos, C. Bermejo, Z. Huang and P. Hui, “Mobile Augmented Reality Survey: From Where We Are to Where We Go,” in IEEE Access, vol. 5, pp. 6917–6950, 2017.
made with💙 by mafda
