Tracking for Outdoor Mobile Augmented Reality: Further development of the Zion Augmented Reality Application

Abstract

This report deals with providing tracking to an outdoor mobile augmented reality system and the Zion Augmented Reality Application. ZionARA is meant to display a virtual recreation of a 13th century castle on the site it once stood through an augmented reality Head Mounted Display. Mobile outdoor augmented/mixed reality puts special demands on what kind of equipment is practical. After briefly evaluating the different existing tracking methods, a solution based on GPS and an augmented inertial rotation tracker is further evaluated by trying them out in a real setting. While standard unaugmented GNSS trackers are unable to provide the level of accuracy necessary, a differential GPS receiver is found to be capable of delivering good enough coordinates. The final result is a new version of ZionARA that actually allows a person to walk around at the site of the castle and see the castle as it most likely once stood. Source code and data files for ZionARA are provided on a supplemental disc.