Living in an Augmented Sentient Environment

At AT&T Laboratories Cambridge, we have built a system that uses sensors to update a model of the real world. The state of the environment is encapsulated within the model in the form of data objects which correspond to real world objects. By using data within the model we can create applications that respond in an appropriate way to changes in the environment. To the users of the system, it therefore appears that the system shares the users' perceptions of the world, and so we refer to it as a sentient system. An accurate model of the environment requires detailed knowledge of the 3D positions and orientations of objects in the environment. As part of the sentient system we have developed a scalable, in-building tracking system that can provide location information for both of these purposes.

Augmented Reality (AR) both exposes and supplements the user's view of the real world. We have implemented two different AR systems; the first uses a head-mounted display connected to a laptop, whilst the second uses a PDA to provide a convenient portal with which the user can quickly view the augmented world. The scale and scope of the deployment of the sentient system throughout all three floors of our building has allowed us to continuously provide a rich AR experience.