Enabling an augmented reality ecosystem: A content-oriented survey

Augmented Reality (AR) is an emerging technology that provides a user experience of augmenting the real world with virtual objects, and allows the user to interact with the virtual objects in real time and space. An AR ecosystem brings content providers, users, AR application developers, AR device manufacturers, and researchers together, making the whole AR environment sustainable. As technology (e.g., sensor tracking, ad hoc routing, computer vision and mobile computing) for supporting AR applications is developing rapidly, content is emerging as a key issue to focus on. In this paper, the state of art in AR from the content generation perspective is reviewed, and three key steps are introduced, namely data collection, content fusion, and content display. Some AR systems and current trends are also briefly discussed. Copyright 2014 ACM