• Korean Journal of Computational Design and Engineering
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• v.16 no.4
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• pp.277-284
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• 2011

In tangible augmented reality (AR) environments for virtual prototyping, the user interacts with virtual products by manipulating tangible objects with his or her hands, but the user often encounter awkward situations in which his or her hands are occluded by augmented virtual objects, which reduces both immersion and ease of interaction. In this paper, we present how to resolve such hand region occlusion in order to enhance natural interaction and immersive visualization. In the AR environment considered, we use two types (product-type and pointer-type) of tangible objects for tangible user interaction with a virtual product of interest. Holding the tangible objects with his or her hands, the user can create input events by touching specified regions of the product-type tangible object with the pointer-type tangible object. We developed a method for resolving hand region occlusion frequently arising during such user interaction, It first detect hand region in a real image and refines the rendered image of the virtual object by subtracting the hand region from the rendered image, Then, it superimposes the refined image onto the real image to obtain an image in which the occlusion is resolved. Incorporated into tangible AR interaction for virtual prototyping of handheld products such as cellular phones and MP3 players, the method has been found by a preliminary user study that it is not only useful to improve natural interaction and immersive visualization of virtual products, but also helpful for making the users experience the products' shapes and functions better.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Precision Engineering Conference
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• 2009.10a
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• pp.737-738
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• 2009

• Korean Journal of Computational Design and Engineering
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.209-216
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• 2008

This paper presents a novel approach to design evaluation of portable consumer electronic (PCE) products using augmented reality (AR) based tangible interaction and functional behavior simulation. In the approach, the realistic visualization is acquired by overlaying the rendered image of a PCE product on the real world environment in real-time using computer vision based augmented reality. For tangible user interaction in an AR environment, the user creates input events by touching specified regions of the product-type tangible object with the pointer-type tangible object. For functional behavior simulation, we adopt state transition methodology to capture the functional behavior of the product into a markup language-based information model, and build a finite state machine (FSM) to controls the transition between states of the product based on the information model. The FSM is combined with AR-based tangible objects whose operation in the AR environment facilitates the realistic visualization and functional simulation of the product, and thus realizes faster product design and development. Based on the proposed approach, a product design evaluation system has been developed and applied for the design evaluation of various PCE products with highly encouraging feedbacks from users.

• Korean Journal of Computational Design and Engineering
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.77-88
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• 2008

Nowadays personal users create a variety of multi-media contents and share them with others through various devices over the Internet since the concept of user created content (UCC) has been widely accepted as a new paradigm in today's multi-media market, which has broken the boundary of contents providers and consumers. This paradigm shift has also introduced a new business model that makes it possible for them to create their own multi-media contents for commercial purpose. This paper proposes a tangible virtual studio using augmented reality to author multi-media contents easily and intuitively for personal broadcasting and personal content generation. It provides a set of tangible interfaces and devices such as visual markers, cameras, movable and rotatable arms carrying cameras, and miniaturized set. They can offer an easy-to-use interface in an immersive environment and an easy switching mechanism between tangible environment and virtual environment. This paper also discusses how to remove inconsistency between real objects and virtual objects during the AR-enabled visualization with a context-adaptable tracking method. The context-adaptable tracking method not only adjusts the locations of invisible markers by interpolating the locations of existing reference markers, but also removes a jumping effect of movable virtual objects when their references are changed from one marker to another.

• Korean Journal of Computational Design and Engineering
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.159-170
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• 2015

Radio-Frequency Identification (RFID) or Near Field Communication (NFC) technology has many advantages over other visual interfaces since it does not require line-of-sight alignment, can identify multiple tags simultaneously, and does not destroy the integrity of original objects. In addition, smart devices such as smartphone and smartpad have NFC/RFID readers which can provide mobile and natural interactions with digital and physical contents. Augmented reality has an excellent visual interaction capability with digital contents in a real environment by embedding digital contents into the physical world. In this paper, we propose a new approach to digital content interactions using RFID/NFC-based tangible interfaces in augmented reality environments that utilize invisible interfaces in addition to marker-based visual interfaces. By combining the advantages of invisible and visual interfaces, more intuitive interactions with digital contents can be provided, which can remove the difficulty of using typical AR paddles that are widely used in AR interactions. In particular, a semantic AR ontology is defined to provide more convenient interactions. Through the semantic ontology-based inferencing, physical querying and filtering are effectively supported. We will show the effectiveness and advantage of the proposed approach by demonstrating implementation results.

• Journal of The Institute of Information and Telecommunication Facilities Engineering
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• v.10 no.4
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• pp.143-147
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• 2011

The system using augmented reality can save the time and cost. It is verified in various fields under the possibility of a technology by solving unrealistic feeling in the virtual space. Therefore, augmented reality has a variety of the potential to be used. Generally, multimodal senses such as visual/auditory/tactile feed back are well known as a method for enhancing the immersion in case of interaction with virtual object. By adapting tangible object we can provide touch sensation to users. a 3D model of the same scale overlays the whole area of the tangible object; thus, the marker area is invisible. This contributes to enhancing immersive and natural images to users. Finally, multimodal feedback also creates better immersion. In this paper, sound feedback is considered. By further improving immersion learning augmented reality for children with the initial step learning content is presented. Augmented reality is in the intermediate stages between future world and real world as well as its adaptability is estimated more than virtual reality.

• Journal of the Institute of Electronics Engineers of Korea CI
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• v.49 no.4
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• pp.71-81
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• 2012

In order to support simple authoring an application of augmented reality for diverse users, the process for the object registration comprised of tracking and recognizing the object should be accomplished intuitively and simple. Although many 3D reconstruction methods to be applied to the object registration have been developed, the methods have not beyond the experimental level yet. In this paper, we proposed a novel marker-based tangible interfaces for various users to manipulate the object with intuitive and simple approaches during an authoring applications fo augmented reality. The proposed method make use of marker as intuitive interface to obtain 3D geometric information of 3D reconstruction. 3D geometric information of an object surface is acquired by touching the object directly with the proposed tangible interfaces. The tangible interfaces not only support 3D reconstruction for graphical modeling but also offer features information which is used for augmented reality. Finally, we verify efficiency of the proposed method with demonstration of an augmented reality application using the proposed method.

• Proceedings of the Korea Society of Design Studies Conference
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• 2003.05a
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• pp.86-87
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• 2003

• Korean Journal of Computational Design and Engineering
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• v.17 no.6
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• pp.417-425
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• 2012

In recent years, great attention has been paid to using simple physical objects as tangible objects to improve user interaction in augmented reality (AR) environments. In this paper, we address AR-based user interaction using tangible objects, which has been used as a key component for virtual design evaluation of engineered products including digital handheld products. We herein consider the use of two types (product-type and pointer-type) of tangible objects. The user creates input events by touching specified parts of the product-type object with the pointer-type object, and the virtual product reacts to the events by rendering its visual and auditory contents on the output devices. The product-type object is used to reflect the geometric shape of a product of interest and to determine its position and orientation in the AR environment. The pointer-type object is used to recognize the reference position of the pointer (or finger) in the same environment. The rapid prototype of the product is employed as a good alternative to the product-type object, but various alternatives to the pointer-type object can be considered according to fabrication process and touching mechanism. In this paper, we present four alternatives to the pointer-type object and investigate their strong and weak points by performing experimental comparison of their various aspects including interaction accuracy, task performance, and qualitative user experience.

• Archives of design research
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• v.20 no.3 s.71
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• pp.119-128
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• 2007

With the development of digital technologies, CAID became an essential part in the industrial design process. Creating photo-realistic images from a virtual scene with 3D models is one of the specialized task for CAID users. This task requires a complex interface of setting the positions and the parameters of camera and lights for optimal rendering results. However, the user interface of existing CAID tools are not simple for designers because the task is mostly accomplished in a parameter setting dialogue window. This research address this interface issues, in particular the issues related to lighting, by developing and evaluating TLS(Tangible Lighting Studio) that uses Augmented Reality and Tangible User Interface. The interface of positioning objects and setting parameters become tangible and distributed in the workspace to support more intuitive rendering task. TLS consists of markers, and physical controller, and a see-through HMD(Head Mounted Display). The user can directly control the lighting parameters in the AR workspace. In the evaluation experiment, TLS provide higher effectiveness, efficiency and user satisfaction compared to existing GUI(Graphic User Interface) method. It is expected that the application of TLS can be expanded to photography education and architecture simulation.