Mobile Augmented Reality Survey: From Where We Are to Where We Go

TLDR

The rapid expansion of mobile device capabilities, ubiquitous internet access, and advances in networking, computer vision, and cloud computing has transformed mobile augmented reality from science fiction into reality, while the devices’ limited computing power is offset by rich sensor suites and remote server assistance. This survey categorizes MAR application fields, presents representative examples, and outlines key challenges. It describes MAR user interfaces, core system components, tracking and registration techniques, network connectivity, data management, performance, and sustainability considerations.

Abstract

The boom in the capabilities and features of mobile devices, like smartphones, tablets, and wearables, combined with the ubiquitous and affordable Internet access and the advances in the areas of cooperative networking, computer vision, and mobile cloud computing transformed mobile augmented reality (MAR) from science fiction to a reality. Although mobile devices are more constrained computationalwise from traditional computers, they have a multitude of sensors that can be used to the development of more sophisticated MAR applications and can be assisted from remote servers for the execution of their intensive parts. In this paper, after introducing the reader to the basics of MAR, we present a categorization of the application fields together with some representative examples. Next, we introduce the reader to the user interface and experience in MAR applications and continue with the core system components of the MAR systems. After that, we discuss advances in tracking and registration, since their functionality is crucial to any MAR application and the network connectivity of the devices that run MAR applications together with its importance to the performance of the application. We continue with the importance of data management in MAR systems and the systems performance and sustainability, and before we conclude this survey, we present existing challenging problems.