Augmenting buildings with infrared information

Abstract

We describe a building information and navigation system based on Palm Pilot PDAs and a set of strong infrared transmitters, located throughout a building. The infrared senders stream localized data, thus effectively augmenting areas of space with localized information. This information can be perceived by just entering those areas with the PDA in your hand. We show that this form of augmentation of an environment can serve a multitude of purposes and requires neither the employment of classic 3D augmented reality nor to carry around wearable computers nor to wear head mounted displays.