Media That Alert or Direct You to Objects and Locations Anywhere Around the Body: Tests of general purpose search and navigation aids for mobile augmented reality

Abstract

With the evolution of mobile computer systems there is a tighter and more ubiquitous integration of the virtual information space with physical space. For example, the use of databases marked by geospatial data or Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tagging and mobile displays enable potential integration of virtual information and physical assets - the two are dynamically linked. Locations such as buildings or rooms and objects such as packages, vehicles, or tools are often linked to arrays of information in databases. But interfaces are still emerging that allow mobile users to efficiently and fully use this information on site for navigation, team coordination, object location, and object retrieval. Of current interfaces, the most suited to mobile geospatial information display is augmented reality (AR). AR systems allow users to be aware of perfectly spatial registered information from simple 2D labels to 3D labels or virtual markers.