Abstract
This dissertation presents techniques for remote communication of situational
and navigational information. Outdoor augmented reality is a technology that
facilitates viewing and generating geospatially registered virtual objects
outdoors. In the future, emergency workers, law enforcers and military personnel
may benefit from using outdoor augmented reality to help describe situational
information to assist with safe and efficient completion of tasks. Situational
information is constantly changing, what was true a minute ago may no longer be
the case. These workers currently rely on a central command centre to keep them
up to date with the larger picture.
This dissertation describes a new approach to communication of navigational and
situational information between people in command centres, and people working in
the field using outdoor augmented reality. This dissertation introduces the
god-like interaction metaphor that describes a new approach to remote
communication. The metaphor utilises a person's current perception about how an
interventionist god influences the world through the hand of god. Command centre
personnel visualise the remote workers on a large display, showing their
position and orientation with respect to the real world. The command centre
personnel use hand gestures and tangible prop interaction to provide navigation
and situational information. A 3D capture system above a display captures the
gestures and interactions, which are then presented to the remote field worker
through the outdoor augmented reality system. To remote workers, the animated
interactions appear to originate from the sky. Using this approach, command
centre personnel can use their hands to point, make gestures, and represent
objects and numbers. Tangible props can be used as virtual landmarks, virtual
rally points and area of interest markers. Post-It notes can be used to create
persistent information without the need for traditional input devices. To
facilitate this form of interaction a 3D reconstruction tabletop display system
was developed. The system has a number of cameras around the outside looking in
that capture the interaction above a display surface. 3D capture systems have
previously been developed to work over high-bandwidth reliable networks, but
this system extends a well know video-based rendering algorithm to enable
transmission of 3D content over an unreliable low-bandwidth network.
The practicalities and limitations of the god-like interaction techniques are
explored in two studies. The first examines outdoor AR experiences, revealing
problems with users estimating distance, particularly when the scale of the
virtual objects is altered. However, participants are able to recognise
objects and interpret intentions. The second study examines the comparative
usefulness of gestures for providing visual cues for collaborative navigation.
The results show that gesture-based cues are as effective as using a mouse to
generate the cues. However, using gestures reduces the cognitive load on
participants and facilitates experimentation of ways to convey intention, which
is not possible using a mouse-based approach.
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