An augmented reality interface for mobile information retrieval

Recent years have seen growing interest in mobile augmented reality. The ability to retrieve information and display it as virtual content overlaid on top of an image of the real world is a natural extension to a mobile device equipped with a camera and wireless connectivity. Such applications need to address a number of technical hurdles including target recognition and camera pose estimation. Beyond these fundamental challenges, however, there is the problem of data connectivity and user interface presentation. How do we connect mobile clients to multiple data sources that may be changing in real time and provide the user with a flexible interface for navigating through the relevant content? We present an AR user interface framework specifically designed to expose disparate data sources through a single application server. Our proposed system uses an multi-tier architecture to separate back-end data retrieval from front-end graphical presentation and UI event handling. We describe how it might be used to build an oil platform equipment maintenance system, as an example of a collaborative, data-driven mobile application.