COMMERCIAL AND RESEARCH CLUSTERING OF AUGMENTED REALITY: DISCOURSES AND DIVIDES BETWEEN AR APPS AND APPLICATIONS

Although the majority of Augmented Reality (AR) scholarship is based in Computer Science disciplines, it is nevertheless important to consider emergent trends in AR discourses as research and development shifts from technology labs to media markets. While technical understandings of AR are necessary, they are insufficient to understand how networked spatial computing is augmenting everyday life. In response, this paper maps and compares two specific AR discourses for nodes of power and authority. First, it systematically reviews how AR research citations are shifting from science and technical foci to applied uses of AR via a systematic scientometric review. That work allows, among other insights, consideration of the extent disciplinary boundaries shaped how AR is understood and innovated. Second is contrasting these evolving patterns with current consumer exposure to AR via a critical technocultural discourse analysis (CTDA) of the presentation of phone-based AR apps available on the iOS App Store and Google Play. Comparative discussion of these inquiries adds to understandings of how AR is conceptualised in research and commercial discourses, and how these data might inform future research and practice in the socialisation of AR systems, media, and experience.

An Efficient, Platform-Independent Map Rendering Framework for Mobile Augmented Reality

With the extensive application of big spatial data and the emergence of spatial computing, augmented reality (AR) map rendering has attracted significant attention. A common issue in existing solutions is that AR-GIS systems rely on different platform-specific graphics libraries on different operating systems, and rendering implementations can vary across various platforms. This causes performance degradation and rendering styles that are not consistent across environments. However, high-performance rendering consistency across devices is critical in AR-GIS, especially for edge collaborative computing. In this paper, we present a high-performance, platform-independent AR-GIS rendering engine; the augmented reality universal graphics library (AUGL) engine. A unified cross-platform interface is proposed to preserve AR-GIS rendering style consistency across platforms. High-performance AR-GIS map symbol drawing models are defined and implemented based on a unified algorithm interface. We also develop a pre-caching strategy, optimized spatial-index querying, and a GPU-accelerated vector drawing algorithm that minimizes IO latency throughout the rendering process. Comparisons to existing AR-GIS visualization engines indicate that the performance of the AUGL engine is two times higher than that of the AR-GIS rendering engine on the Android, iOS, and Vuforia platforms. The drawing efficiency for vector polygons is improved significantly. The rendering performance is more than three times better than the average performances of existing Android and iOS systems.

A Framework for Centralizing Ethics in the Design Engineering of Spatial Computing Artifacts

Creating Spatial Computing (SComp) artifacts (including Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality, Mixed Reality, and Ambient Intelligent artifacts) is a rapidly-emerging domain in need of new design methodologies. In this paper, we examine whether and how ethics are procedurally integrated into the creations of SComp artifacts. After an introduction to terminology — including a reframed definition of Spatial Computing — findings of interviews with Spatial Computing practitioners are shared. The interviews indicated an awareness among professionals about the inordinate vulnerability of SComp artifacts, and about the need for — and the lack thereof — processes and tests to mitigate negative effects of SComp artifacts. Results from the domain expert interviews are integrated into a proposed framework: The Framework for Ethical Spatial Computing Design Engineering. Our framework serves to support researchers and practitioners in devising new methodologies unique to Spatial Computing by highlighting considerations central to the creation of ethical artifacts. The framework integrates the findings from the in-depth interview study and builds on existing models in Design Process, Methods, and Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) Research that highlight important barriers and opportunities between research and practice. It maps the three-phases journey consisted of (1) Enablers, (2) Synthesizers, and (3) SComp Artifacts. We trust that our work sheds light on considerations necessary to the creation of ethical Spatial Computing artifacts.