wRoE..A.L.

R O N A L D A Z U MA
T r ac k i n g R eq u i r emen t s f o r A u g men t ed R eal i t y
I In t hi s Issue, Fltzmaurlc,~ = and Fei ner
descri be t wo di f f er ent augment ed-
real i t y systems. Such sy~stems re-
qui re hi ghl y capabl e head and obj ect
t rackers t o creat e an ef f ect i ve Illusion of
vi rt ual obj ect s coexi st i ng wi t h t he real
wor l d. For or di nar y vi rt ual envi r onment s
t hat compl et el y repl ace t he real wor l d
wi t h a vi rt ual wor l d, I t sufflo~=s t o know
t he appr oxi mat e posi t i on and or i ent at i on
of t he user' s head. Small errors are not
easily di scerni bl e because t he user's vis-
ual sense tencls t o over r i de 1:he conf l i ct -
Ing signals f r om his or her w~=stlbular and
br opr l ocept l ve systems. But In aug-
ment ed real i ty, vi rt ual objec"ts suppl e-
ment r at her t han suppl ant tl~e real
wor l d. Preservi ng t he Illusion t hat t he
t wo coexi st requi res pr oper al i gnment
and reglstral~lon of t he vlrtu~al obj ect s t o
t he real wor l d. Even t i ny errors in regis-
t r at l on are easily det ect abl e by t he
human visual system. What does aug-
ment ed real i t y requi re f r om trackers t o
avoi d such errors?
First, a t r acker must be accurate t o a
small f ract i on of a degr ee In or i ent at i on
and a f ew mi l l i met ers (mm) in posi t i on.
F i g u r e 1. , Co n c e p t u a l c t r a wi n g o f
s e n s o r s v i i e wi n g b e a c o n s I n t h e
c e i l i n g
Errors in measured head or i ent at i on usu-
al l y cause l arger r egi st r at i on offsets t han
obj ect or i ent at i on errors do, maki ng t hi s
r equi r ement mor e cri ti cal f or systems
based on Head-Mount ed Displays (HMDS).
Try t he f ol l owi ng si mpl e demonst r at i on.
Take out a di me and hol d I t at arm' s
l engt h. The di amet er of t he di me covers
appr oxi mat el y 1.5 degrees of arc. In
compari son, a ful l moon covers 1/2 de-
gree of arc. Now i magi ne a vi rt ual cof f ee
cup si t t i ng on t he cor ner of a real t abl e
t wo met ers away f r om you. An angul ar
er r or of 1.5 degrees in head or i ent at i on
moves t he cup by about 52 mm. Clearly,
small or i ent at i on errors coul d resul t In a
cup suspended in mi dai r or i nt erpene-
t r at i ng t he t abl e. Similarly, If we want
t he cup t o stay wi t hi n 1 t o 2 mm of Its
t r ue posi t i on, t hen we cannot t ol er at e
t r acker posi t i onal errors of mor e t han 1
t o 2 mm.
Second, t he combi ned l at ency of t he
t racker and t he graphi cs engi ne must be
ver y l ow. Combi ned l at ency is t he del ay
f r om t he t i me t he t racker subsystem
takes i ts measurement s t o t he t i me t he
cor r espondi ng i mages appear In t he dis-
pl ay devices. Many HMD-based systems
have a combi ned l at ency over 100 ms. At
a moder at e head or obj ect r ot at i on rate
of 50 degrees per second, 100 millisec-
onds (ms) of l at ency causes 5 degrees of
angul ar error. At a rapi d rate of 300 de-
grees per second, keepi ng angul ar errors
bel ow 0.5 degrees requi res a combi ned
l at ency of under 2 ms!
Finally, t he t r acker must wor k at l ong
ranges. When t he envi r onment Is com-
pl et el y vi rt ual , l ong- r ange trackers are
not requi red because we can creat e an
Illusion of f l i ght by t ransl at i ng all t he
obj ect s ar ound a st at i onary user. But In
augment ed real i ty, f Mng i s n o t a val i d
means of l ocomot i on. The vi rt ual obj ect s
must remai n regi st ered wi t h t he real
wor l d. Since we cannot t ransl at e real
obj ect s ar ound a user at t he t ouch of a
but t on, t he user i nstead must move
hi msel f or hersel f and t he di spl ay de-
vices wor n. Thus, many augment ed-real -
i t y appl i cat i ons demand ext ended- r ange
trackers t hat can suppor t wal ki ng users.
For exampl e, Fl tzmauri ce' s act i ve maps
and augment ed- l i br ar y appl i cat i ons re-
qui re trackers t hat can cover an ent i r e
map or all t he bookshel ves In t he l i brary,
respecti vel y.
No exi st i ng system compl et el y satisfies
all of t hese requi rement s. Systems com-
monl y used t o t rack airplanes, ships, and
cars have suf f i ci ent range but Insuffi-
ci ent accuracy. Many di f f er ent t racki ng
t echnol ogi es exi st [1], but al most all are
shor t - r ange systems t hat cannot be eas-
Ily ext ended.
An except i on Is an opt oel ect r oni c sys-
t em devel oped by UNC Chapel Hill t hat
can be ext ended t o ar bi t r ar y r oom sizes,
whi l e sti l l pr ovi di ng reasonabl e t racki ng
perf ormance. Optical sensors mount ed
on t he head uni t vi ew panels of Infrared
beacons In t he cei l i ng above t he user
(Photos 1, 2, Fi gure 1). The known loca-
t i ons of t hese beacons and t he measure-
ment s t aken by t he sensors pr ovi de
enough I nf or mat i on t o comput e t he
posi t i on and or i ent at i on of t he user' s
head. The system can resol ve head mo-
t i ons of under 2 mm in POSition and 0.2
degrees in or i ent at i on, wi t hout t he dis-
t or t i ons commonl y seen in magnet i c
trackers. Typical val ues f or t he updat e
rate and l at ency are 70- t o 80HZ and 15-
t o 30ms respect i vel y. The exi st i ng cei l i ng
covers a 10-x-12 area (In feet), but we
can ext end t he range by si mpl y addi ng
mor e panels t o t he cei l i ng gri d. By t he
t i me t hi s arti cl e is publ i shed, a new ex-
panded cei l i ng t hat covers appr oxi mat el y
16- x 30 f eet shoul d be operat i onal . UNC
f i rst demonst r at ed t hi s system t o t he
publ i c In t he Tomor r ow' s Realities gal l ery
of ACM'S SIGGRAPH '91 conf erence In Las
SO J ub 1993/Vol.36, No.7 OMl a l I I HI CA ' r l ONi OF ' I ' HI A CH
- R o E . A - L ,,
Ph o t o 1. HMD wi t h f o u r o p t i c a l s e n s o r s a i me d u p wa r d
Ph o t o 2. T h e a c t u a l s y s t e m I n o u r g r a p h i c s l a d
Ph Ot O 3. " Ha t " wi t h t h r e e o p t i c a l s e n s o r s t o t r a c k a n
u l t r a s o n i c wa n d
vegas, and t o o u r k n o wl e d g e t hi s Is t h e
f i r st d e mo n s t r a t e d scal abl e t r ac k i ng sys-
t e m f o r HMDS [2].
Whi l e t hi s syst em is sui t abl e f o r aug-
ment ed- r eal i t y appl i cat i ons, i t is f ar f r o m
I deal . We need t o r educ e t h e we i g h t of
t h e head u n i t and i ncr ease t h e r est r i ct ed
head r o t a t i o n r ange. Due t o l i ne- of - si ght
const r ai nt s, t hi s syst em is n o t wel l
sui t ed f o r obj ec t t r acki ng, a l t h o u g h we
do have a " h a t " t h a t t r acks an ul t r asoni c
wa n d ( Phot o 3). Because of t h e l ar ge
numDer of beacons i n t h e cei l i ng, we
s omet i mes call i t " t h e t h o u s a n d poi nt s
of l i ght . " Research is needed t o dev el op
l ong- r ange t r acker s t h a t r equi r e f ar
f e we r modi f i c at i ons t o t h e e n v i r o n me n t .
Per haps t h e mo s t ef f ec t i v e sol ut i ons wi l l
be t e c h n o l o g y hybr i ds. For exampl e, i n-
er t i al t r acker s have I nf i ni t e r ange, b u t
l ose accur acy wi t h t i me due t o accumu-
l at ed dr i f t , occasi onal meas ur ement s
f r o m sever al accur at e b u t s hor t - r ange
t r acker s mi g h t c o n t r o l t h a t dr i f t . These
and o t h e r pot ent i al I mp r o v e me n t s mu s t
be ex pl or ed t o me e t t h e s t r i n g e n t re-
q u i r e me n t s o f a u g me n t e d r eal i t y. [ ]
The optoel ectroni c tracker was partially sup-
ported by ONR contract N00014-86-K-0680,
DARPA contract DAEA 18-90-C-0044, and NSF
contract ASC-8920219.
References
1. Meyer, K., Applewhlte, H. and Blocca, F. A survey of
position trackerS. Presence 1, 2 (Spring 1992), 173-200.
2. ward, M., Azuma, R., Bennett, R., Gottschalk, $. and
FUChS,H. A demonstrated Optical tracker with scalable
work area for head-mounted display systems. In Pro-
ceedings o f 1992 Symposium on Interactive 3D GraphiCS
[Mar. 29-Apr. I, CamPrldge, MASS.). Comput. Graprt.
1992, 43-52.
CR Categories and SuPject Descriptors: 1.3.1 [Computer
Graphics]: Hardware Archltecture--fflree.dlmenslonal dis.
play,;; 1.3.7 [computer Graphics]: Three-Dimensional
Graphics and Reallsm--vlrtual reali t y
Additional Key Words and Phrases: Augmented reality,
tracking
RONALD AZUMA Is a Ph.D. student at the Unlveslty Of
North Carolina, Chapel Hill. Author's Present Aclclress: Uni-
versity of Norm Carolina, CB 3175 Computer Science
Dept., Chapel Hill, NC 27599-3175; emall: azuma@
cs.unc.edu
COMMUI41CAT|OMSO~THIACMJu~y 1993/Vo1.36, No.7 Sl