A Prototyping Architecture for Augmented Reality

In this paper we introduce an architecture for rapid development and assessment of advanced 3D visual track ing algorithms. We claim, that no universal tracking approach exists, that fulfills the requirements of all possible application seenarios at the same time. On the contrary, very specific and working solutions can be developed for given situations and uses. Therefore, software for visual tracking must be designed as a highly flexible system that can be quickly re-configured in order to enable the development of optimized solutions in terms of robustness, accuracy, frame rate and delay. To this purpose we designed an architecture that offers many functionalities, which can be combined together to build a new processing chain. The overall system offers numerous advantages, such as interactive programming, run-time access to data and parameters and easy interfacing with other libraries or applications.