Augmented Reality for Collaborative Exploration of Unfamiliar Environments

Understanding an unfamiliar environment can be a difficult and time-consuming task, yet one at which users can be particularly effective when it is accomplished collaboratively. We are investigating techniques that support communication among multiple users within a group to help them explore their surroundings together. Our focus is on determining how each user’s interface is designed, based on their view of the environment and information received both from the environment and from other users. We build on our previous work on view management to assist in the placement of virtual information and to maintain a coherent user interface. We also use a situation-awareness aid, based on a head-controlled 3D World-in-Miniature, to display information on a head-worn display about objects or locations that might not be directly visible to the user.