Obstacles to General Purpose Augmented Reality Essay -- Virtual World

Obstacles to General Purpose Augmented Reality Abstract Augmented reality allows the enhancement of the real world with text, images and virtual objects. General purpose augmented reality is designed to be used continuously, as a part of everyday life. While this is potentially very powerful, it will also be very difficult to implement. Introduction Augmented reality allows the enhancement of the real world with a computer generated virtual world. This virtual world can be simple or complex, and can contain text, labels, sounds, images and even virtual objects that appear to be real. Many uses have been proposed for augmented reality. In general, they can be broken down into two categories: those that use limited augmented reality for a specific task, and those that use a general purpose, continuously worn system. General purpose, continuously worn augmented reality systems hold great potential for enhancing everyday life. They will allow instant and effortless access to vast amounts of information. They will enable seamless interaction with the increasing number of computer systems that we find in our world. They promise new means of enhancing social interaction and communication. The also will have many other uses that have not even been thought of yet. Despite their great promise, general purpose augmented reality systems are very complex and will be very difficult to adequately implement. They have demanding hardware requirements, and also present software problems that are likely to be even more difficult to overcome. Hardware Issues While present portable computers are useful in many respects, the hardware they contain falls far short of what is needed to adequately implement augmented ... ...f this is Surface drawing , an experimental system that allows the creation of 3d objects using gestures. While the problem of designing interfaces is not likely to be fully solved the near future, it will be possible to create interfaces that will be adequate for many situations. Conclusion General purpose augmented reality will have to overcome many obstacles before it can become widespread. It must be able to draw on numerous sources of data, filter that data for relevance and usefulness, be able to effectively and efficiently display that data, and finally allow the user to easily interact with that data. It must also have adequate hardware to support these goals. Despite the challenges it faces, general purpose augmented reality will prove to be very useful in many situations. As it becomes more practical, it is likely to become increasingly common.