Interactive Augmented Reality

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Rochester. Dept. of Computer Science, 1998. Simultaneously published in the Technical Report series.Augmented reality is the merging of synthetic sensory information into a user's perception of a real environment. Until recently, it has presented a passive interface to its human users, who were merely viewers of the scene augmented only with visual information. In contrast, practically since its inception, computer graphics--and its outgrowth into virtual reality--has presented an interactive environment. It is our thesis that the augmented reality interface can be made interactive. We present: techniques that can free the user from restrictive requirements such as working in calibrated environments, results with haptic interface technology incorporated into augmented reality domains, and systems considerations that underlie the practical realization of these interactive augmented reality techniques