Confluence of Ubiquitous Computing and Augmented Reality

When people hear the term "Augmented Reality" (AR) they currently first think of a head-mounted display and a local tracking system which superimposes virtual information into a user's field of view. Recently, research into AR-setups has started to move away from this primary setup. Information is presented not only in head-mounted displays but also on world-registered monitors that can be attached to portable instruments or which are carefully arranged within an ubiquitous environment. Furthermore, the increasing need for mobile AR-applications requests tracking arrangements to be laid out in a more global scheme integrating a number of heterogeneous trackers. To this end, an ubquitously available tracking system needs to be able to let mobile users establish dynamic connections to various tracking services. This talk will present several examples which show the confluence of concepts from ubiquitous computing and augmented reality.