Augmented reality for exterior construction applications

Augmented reality (AR) constitutes a very promising new user interface concept for many applications. In this chapter, we pay particular attention to developing AR technology for exterior construction applications, augmenting video sequences from construction sites with information stored in models. Such augmentations can tremendously benefit several business processes common to many construction projects. We are focussing on two approaches to augment the reality of construction sites. The first one augments video sequences of large outdoor sceneries with detailed models of prestigious new architectures, such as TV towers and bridges. Since such video sequences are very complex, we currently prerecord the sequences and employ off-line, interacticve techniques. The second approach operates on live video streams. The achieve robust real-time performance, we need to use simplified, "engineered" scenes. In particular, we place highly visible markers at precisely measured locations to aid the tracking process.