Speaker: Mark Billinghurst (Human Interface Technology Lab, University of Washington)
Virtual Reality (VR) appears a natural medium for computer supported collaborative work (CSCW). However immersive Virtual Reality separates the user from the real world and their traditional tools. An alternative approach is through Augmented Reality (AR), the overlaying of virtual objects on the real world. This allows users to see each other and the real world at the same time as the virtual images, facilitating a high bandwidth of communication between users and intuitive manipulation of the virtual information. We review AR techniques for developing CSCW interfaces and describe lessons learned from developing a variety of collaborative Augmented Reality interfaces for both face to face and remote collaboration. Our recent work involves the use of computer vision techniques for accurate AR registration. We describe this and identify areas for future research.