AV Technology - January 2009 - (Page 41)

avassets tech horizons Augmented Reality A new technology integrates computing and video technologies to deliver an enhanced experience of “reality.” ast week, Josie missed a field trip that her botany class took to the Botanical Garden. Today, using a technology called Augmented Reality (AR), she’s going to make up that field trip on her own using a guided tour that the TA created to help her understand the material the class covered. The midterm is coming up, and Josie will need to identify key species in each of nine ecosystems modeled in the garden. Josie heads to the Botanical Garden with her PDA. Starting from the main gate, she faces east and observes a striking cedar, in front of which is a sign that tells her the tree is more than 500 years old. Josie plugs in her headphones and selects a recording of the professor giving his theory about the role that trees like this one play in the ecosystem. As she approaches the cedar, the GPS in her PDA notes her location and makes the appropriate files available. Browsing through the notes associated with her current GPS coordinates, Josie discovers that a classmate has decided to do his term project on the skunks making their home in the tree. She also learns from a previous year’s student project that the skunks living WHO’S DOING IT? Augmented reality has been put to use in a number of fields, including medical imaging, where doctors can access data about patients; aviation, where tools show pilots important data about the landscape they are viewing; training, in which technology provides students or technicians with necessary data about specific objects they are working with; and in museums, where artifacts can be tagged with information such as the artifact’s historical context or where it was discovered. HOW DOES IT WORK? A range of technologies can be used for AR. Many projects use headgear or a similar device that projects data into the user’s field of vision, corresponding with a real object or space that the user is observing. In the case of a technical course on PC maintenance, for example, AR might overlay a schematic diagram onto the inside of a computer, allowing students to identify the various components and access technical specifications about them. PDAs or other portable devices can use GPS data to provide users with context — including visual, audio, or text-based data — about real objects or places. AR is not merely a companion text or multimedia file, but a technology designed to “see” a real object or place and provide the user with appropriate information at the right time. It’s designed to blur the line between the reality the user is experiencing and the content provided by technology. [Source: Educause Learning Initiative, www. educause.edu/eli] L in the tree displaced a young raccoon. As she moves through the garden, she selects photos and movies of other trees, depicting the history of the garden, seasonal differences, and changes that have occurred. In addition to the material supplied by the TA, Josie is able to download the notes, photos, and keywords that the rest of her class recorded when they took the field trip. She adds her own observations, assigning appropriate keywords so others can find them easily. She also makes sure to include GPS coordinates. When she is finished with the project, she will include it in her public record to share with her little brother back home. WHAT IS IT? The goal of AR is to add information and meaning to a real object or place. Unlike virtual reality, AR does not create a simulation of reality. Instead, it takes a real object or space as the foundation and incorporates technologies that add contextual data to deepen a person’s understanding of the subject. For example, by superimposing imaging data from an MRI onto a patient’s body, AR can help a surgeon pinpoint a tumor that is to be removed. » IMAGINERY LINES If you have ever seen the yellow first-down marker line when watching a football game on TV, you’ve seen Augmented Reality in action. How does it work? Before the game, a laser is placed in the center of the field to collect data on elevation points. That information is used to draw a computer map of the contours of the field, and the map is adjusted and overlaid onto the camera’s view of the actual field. Anywhere from three to five separate broadcast cameras are outfitted with custom Sportvision sensors and encoders to capture camera data so that Sportvision’s computers can enhance one camera “live” with the yellow line, and any of the others for use in replay. As cameras pan, tilt, and zoom, this data enables the virtual line to follow suit, staying in perspective and getting larger and smaller, as needed. Drawing the yellow line so that it appears to be painted on the field underneath the players is accomplished through a sophisticated process of color keying that allows the operaIMAGE COURTESY OF SPORTVISION tors to tell the computers what colors to draw on (grass, dirt) and what not to draw on (skin, uniforms). Finally, after adding the precise location of the actual first down marker to the system, the yellow line appears like magic on your TV screen. [Source: Sportvision] www.avtechnologyonline.com january 2009 | AV TECHNOLOGY | 41 http://www.educause.edu/eli http://www.educause.edu/eli http://www.avtechnologyonline.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of AV Technology - January 2009

AV Technology - January 2009 Contents Precedent Corporate: Hunkering Down Government: The Great Unifier Education: Technological Self-Sufficiency Integrating Communications into Your Business Process DVI/HDMI Signals over Twisted-Pair Cable AV Helps Explain the Unexplainable AV Enhancements at the Coliseum Product Forum Tech Horizons Product Spotlight New Products Ad Index AV MO

AV Technology - January 2009

For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.