Prototyping of a mobile, Augmented Reality assisted maintenance tool

The purpose of this thesis work is to create a prototype for an augmented reality application that isaimed to support service technician when performing service and maintenance of machines andengines. The prototype will be used for investigating what technical limitations there is and toestablish basic usability for the user interface. The method that is used is user studies and analysis toevaluate use cases and user stories. An iterative work process is then applied for design and theprototype is continuously user tested.The resulting prototype uses a Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 running on Android operating system. Theframework used for augmented reality is NyARToolkit which handles marker recognition andconnections to Android. NyARToolkit uses OpenGL to visualize 3D models. The 3D models used isin the metasequoia fileformat. The application that implements the framework gets reasonableperformance on Galaxy Tab 2 and the visualization of 3D model is accomplished. A stabile markerrecognition is not attained.The usability has not been studied thoroughly, but it is designed based on the unofficial standard fordesign on mobile devices and for 3D manipulation on mobile devices. The graphical design is aimingfor an open workspace with as few interrupting objects as possible. Clear descriptions of objects are apart that has resulted from usertesting.Judging by the functionality that the prototype indicates it could be assumed that an application of thistype is possible in the given field, which is worked performed by a service technician. The testingequipment that has been used is not of the latest generation of mobile devices which can mean thatnewer models perform better than the ones used for testing. What seems to be limiting the use of themarker recognition is the quality of the video input. The device’s processing power affects howadvanced the 3D environment can be, which in turn can reduce performance when more complex 3Dmodels are used. Since there are several frameworks for the Android platform there is also severalsolutions to making a prototype with the sane functionality. Since I have only explored oneframework there is a possibility that another framework could have produced a more stabile prototypeThe user testing that has been performed points out that a distinct design is needed. Clearly describingtexts for different objects should be used to make the user less confused. An unofficial user designthat is generally used has to be implemented so that the users fell at home when handling theapplication on mobile devices