Mobile augmented reality: a complex human-centered system

A major new thrust in the information sciences will be getting information to a user, in a usable form, regardless of location. A high-end example that involves many aspects of human-centered systems is the use of augmented reality to display information atop the real world without distracting users from their task. This chapter discusses the scientific and technical difficulties for mobile augmented reality by examining a recently initiated research project, the Battlefield Augmented Reality System (BARS). BARS is exploring how important information can be overlaid on what users see, hear, and otherwise experience of the surrounding world as they walk through an urban environment. We argue that the development of such a human-centered system introduces many difficult challenges in a variety of areas, including: accurate wide-area tracking systems; navigation user interface design; information filtering; wireless networking and software architectures; and societal issues for distributed collaboration.