Overview

MATRIS College Logo MATRIS - Markerless real-time Tracking for Augmented Reality Image Synthesis
SIXTH FRAMEWORK PROGRAMME
PRIORITY 2
Information Society Technologies
IST-2002-2.3.1.6 Multimodal interfaces
Project Number: IST- 002013
Date: Feb.2004 - Jan.2007

Augmented reality (AR) is a growing field, with many diverse applications ranging from TV and film production, to industrial maintenance, medicine, education, entertainment and games. The central idea is to add virtual objects into a real scene, either by displaying them in a see-through head-mounted display, or by superimposing them on an image of the scene captured by a camera. Depending on the application, the added objects might be virtual characters in a TV or film production, instructions for repairing a car engine, or a reconstruction of an archaeological site (see Figure 1).

  • Virtual Broadcasting Studio
  • Maintenance with augmented reality assistance

  • Tied-to-pitch graphics for sport
  • Visualisation of virtual reconstruction on archaeological sites
Figure 1: Augmented Reality applications. (a) Virtual Broadcasting Studio: visualisation of a virtual graphic in front of a presenter. (b) Maintenance with augmented reality assistance. (c) "Tied-to-pitch" graphics for sport (d) Visualisation of virtual reconstruction on archaeological sites

For the effect to be believable, the virtual objects must appear rigidly fixed to the real world, which requires the accurate measurement in real-time of the position of the camera or the user's head. Present technology cannot achieve this without resorting to systems that require a significant infrastructure in the operating environment, severely restricting the range of possible applications.

The objective of MATRIS is to develop and implement a system for determining the position, orientation, and focal length of a camera in real time, by analysis of the camera images and exploitation of unobtrusive inertial motion sensors. As the system will not require markers or other special infrastructure in the environment, it will be suitable for applications where existing tracking systems cannot easily be used, including:

  • insertion of virtual objects in live broadcast images outside of a dedicated "virtual studio" environment, such as graphics for sport, or virtual objects in a conventional TV studio
  • augmented reality applications in the area of development, production, service and maintenance
  • augmented reality for architecture, design and product presentation
  • augmented reality for cultural heritage sites and tourism