Title: Enabling outdoor MR capabilities for head mounted displays: a case study

Authors: Christoph Praschl; Oliver Krauss; Gerald A. Zwettler

Addresses: Research Group for Advanced Information Systems and Technology (AIST), Research and Development Department, University of Applied Sciences Upper Austria, Softwarepark 11, 4232 Hagenberg, Austria ' Research Group for Advanced Information Systems and Technology (AIST), Research and Development Department, University of Applied Sciences Upper Austria, Softwarepark 11, 4232 Hagenberg, Austria ' Research Group for Advanced Information Systems and Technology (AIST), Research and Development Department, University of Applied Sciences Upper Austria, Softwarepark 11, 4232 Hagenberg, Austria; School of Informatics, Communications and Media, University of Applied Sciences Upper Austria, Softwarepark 11, 4232 Hagenberg, Austria

Abstract: This research work covers generic approaches to determine the outdoor position and orientation of an augmented reality device due to the lack of outdoor capability of depth-sensor or environmental recognition-sensor-based devices currently available on the market. The determination of the orientation is primarily achieved with an attitude heading reference system (AHRS) for a rough estimation. Based on a connected/built-in video camera the accuracy at minor changes of the orientation is enhanced by applying registration to assess the differences in orientation between two video frames, compensating for gyroscope drift errors. The position determination is achieved using GPS with a rover and base station real time kinematic beacon system to achieve enhanced precision. Results show that due to sensor application AR hardware considered for indoor use can be retooled to properly work outdoors, at large distances and even inside running vehicles. Thus, future implementation of applications in various domains is facilitated.

Keywords: mixed reality; outdoor capabilities; orientation; positioning; image registration; modelling MR training scenarios; head mounted displays.

DOI: 10.1504/IJSPM.2020.112463

International Journal of Simulation and Process Modelling, 2020 Vol.15 No.6, pp.512 - 523

Received: 06 Apr 2019
Accepted: 25 Sep 2019
Published online: 19 Jan 2021 *

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