Software Development Challenges for Ubiquitous Augmented Reality

The research areas of augmented reality and ubiquitous computing both contribute to a more natural interaction of users with computing systems in their environment. As each area matures, they are beginning to overlap. Their confluence is the domain for my dissertation, and I call it ubiquitous augmented reality. Building ubiquitous augmented reality systems presents three software engineering challenges. First, the software must cope with uncertainty; the users mobility changes the availability of distributed devices. Second, the desired behavior of a system is ill-defined, as appropriate interaction metaphors are still being researched and users preferences change. Third, the system must maintain near-real-time performance to create a convincing user experience. In this position paper, I present the domain of ubiquitous augmented reality, show several example applications, and describe the software engineering challenges. These serve as a motivation for ongoing and future research.     «

The research areas of augmented reality and ubiquitous computing both contribute to a more natural interaction of users with computing systems in their environment. As each area matures, they are beginning to overlap. Their confluence is the domain for my dissertation, and I call it ubiquitous augmented reality. Building ubiquitous augmented reality systems presents three software engineering challenges. First, the software must cope with uncertainty; the users mobility changes the availabi...     »