Chloe@University: an indoor, mobile mixed reality guidance system

Peternier A, Righetti X, Hopmann M, Thalmann D, Repetto M, Papagiannakis G, Davy P, Lim M, Magnenatthalmann N, Barsocchi P, Fragopoulos T, Serpanos D, Gialelis Y, Kirykou A

Real-time systems  Mixed reality  Virtual Human  Localization  Sensor Networks 

With the advent of ubiquitous and pervasive computing environ- ments, one of promising applications is a guidance system. In this paper, we propose a mobile mixed reality guide system for in- door environments, Chloe@University. A mobile computing de- vice (Sony's Ultra Mobile PC) is hidden inside a jacket and a user selects a destination inside a building through voice commands. A 3D virtual assistant then appears in the see-through HMD and guides him/her to destination. Thus, the user simply follows the virtual guide. Chloe@University also suggests the most suitable virtual character (e.g. human guide, dog, cat, etc.) based on user preferences and profiles. Depending on user profiles, different se- curity levels and authorizations for content are previewed. Con- cerning indoor location tracking, WiFi, RFID, and sensor-based methods are integrated in this system to have maximum flexibil- ity. Moreover smart and transparent wireless connectivity provides the user terminal with fast and seamless transition among Access Points (APs). Different AR navigation approaches have been stud- ied: [Olwal 2006], [Elmqvist et al. ] and [Newman et al. ] work indoors while [Bell et al. 2002] and [Reitmayr and Drummond 2006] are employed outdoors. Accurate tracking and registration is still an open issue and recently it has mostly been tackled by no single method, but mostly through aggregation of tracking and localization methods, mostly based on handheld AR. A truly wear- able, HMD based mobile AR navigation aid for both indoors and outdoors with rich 3D content remains an open issue and a very active field of multi-discipline research.