Abstract
Many civil engineering tasks require to access geospatial data in the field and reference the stored information to the real-world situation. Augmented reality (AR), which interactively overlays 3D graphical content directly over a view of the world, can be a useful tool to visualize but also create, edit and update geospatial data representing real-world artifacts. We present research results on the next-generation field information system for companies relying on geospatial data, providing mobile workforces with capabilities for on-site inspection and planning, data capture and as-built surveying. To achieve this aim, we used mobile AR technology for on-site surveying of geometric and semantic attributes of geospatial 3D models on the user’s handheld device. The interactive 3D visualizations automatically generated from production databases provide immediate visual feedback for many tasks and lead to a round-trip workflow where planned data are used as a basis for as-built surveying through manipulation of the planned data. Classically, surveying of geospatial objects is a typical scenario performed from utility companies on a daily basis. We demonstrate a mobile AR system that is capable of these operations and present first field trials with expert end users from utility companies. Our initial results show that the workflows of planning and surveying of geospatial objects benefit from our AR approach.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Azuma R (1997) A survey of augmented reality. In: Presence-teleoperators and virtual environments, vol. 6, pp 355–385
EPOSA—Echtzeit Positionierung Austria (2010) Retrieved Oct 3, 2011, from http://www.eposa.at
Feiner S, MacIntyre B, Hoellerer T and Webster A (1997) A touring machine: prototyping 3D mobile augmented reality systems for exploring the urban environment. In: Proceedings of IEEE ISWC’97, pp 74–81
Golparvar-Fard M, Pena-Mora F, Savarese S (2009) D4AR- A 4-dimensional augmented reality model for automating construction progress data collection, processing and communication. J Inform Technol 14:129–153
Hakkarainen M, Woodward C, Rainio K (2009) Software architecture for mobile mixed reality and 4D BIM interaction. In: Proceedings of 25th CIB W78 Conference, Istanbul, pp 1–8
King G R, Piekarski W, Thomas B H (2005) ARVino—outdoor augmented reality visualisation of viticulture GIS data. In: Werner B (ed) Proceedings of the 4th IEEE/ACM international symposium on mixed and augmented reality, IEEE computer society, pp 52–55
Kruijff E, Mendez E, Veas E, Gruenewald T, Simoni S, Luyet V, Salminen O, Nurminen A, Lehtinen V (2010) HYDROSYS: on-site monitoring and management of environmental processes using handheld devices. In: Anand S, Ware M, Jackson M, Vairavamoorthy K, Abrahart R (eds) Geohydroinformatics: integrating GIS and water engineering. Published by CRC Press pp 37–51
Langlotz T, Wagner D, Mulloni A, Schmalstieg D (2012) Online creation of panoramic augmented reality annotations on mobile phones. In: IEEE pervasive computing, vol 11, no 2, pp 56–63
Olsen Jr D R (2007) Evaluating user interface systems research. In: Proceedings of UIST ‘07, New York, pp 251–258
Piekarski W, Thomas B H (2001) Tinmith-metro: new outdoor techniques for creating city models with an augmented reality wearable computer. In: Proceedings of the international symposium on wearable computers (ISWC′01), Zurich, pp 31–35
Reitmayr G, Drummond T W (2006) Going out: Robust tracking for outdoor augmented reality. In: Proceedings of ISMAR′06, IEEE press, Santa Barbara, pp 109–118
Reitmayr G, Drummond T W (2007) Initialisation for visual tracking in urban environments. In: Proceedings of ISMAR 2007, IEEE press, pp 161–170
Roberts G W, Evans A J, Dodson A H, Denby B, Cooper S J, Hollands R J (2002) The use of augmented reality, GPS and INS for subsurface data visualization. In: Proceedings of the XXII international congress of the FIT, Washington, pp 77–89
Robinson AH, Petchenik BB (1976) The nature of maps. University of Chicago Press. Retrieved Dec 5, 2010, from http://drc.ohiolink.edu/handle/2374.OX/21219
Rogers CDF, Thomas AM, Metje N, Chapman DN (2008) Mapping the underworld—the UK tackles a global problem. Trenchless Works, Issue 17, January
Schall G, Mendez E, Kruijff E, Veas E, Junghanns S, Reitinger B, Schmalstieg D (2009) Handheld augmented reality for underground infrastructure visualization. In: Personal and ubiquitous computing, special issue on mobile spatial interaction, vol 4, no 13, pp 281–291
Schall G, Wagner D, Reitmayr G, Taichmann E, Wieser M, Schmalstieg D, Hofmann-Wellenhof B (2009) Global pose estimation using multi-sensor fusion for outdoor augmented reality. In: Proceedings of ISMAR 2009, IEEE press, pp 153–162
Schall G, Junghanns S, Schmalstieg D (2010) VIDENTE—3D Visualization of Underground Infrastructure using Handheld Augmented Reality. In: GeoHydroinformatics: integrating GIS and water engineering. Anand S, Ware M, Jackson M, Vairavamoorthy K, Abrahart R (eds). Published by CRC Press, pp 207–219
Schall G, Schoening J, Gartner G, Paelke V (2011) Augmented maps & environments: approaches, applications & interactions. In: Advances in web-based GIS, mapping services and applications, ISPRS book, Li S, Dragicevic S, Veenendaal B, Published May 10th 2011 by CRC Press, pp 207–225
Schall G, Mulloni A, Reitmayr G (2010) North-centred orientation tracking on mobile phones. In: Proceedings of the 9th IEEE international symposium on mixed and augmented reality, pp 267–268
Schall G (2012) Mobile augmented reality for human scale interaction with geospatial models—The benefit for industrial applications. In: Christian K (ed) Mobile computing. Springer Gabler Research
Schmalstieg D, Schall G, Wagner D, Barakonyi I, Reitmayr G, Newman J, Ledermann F, (2007) Managing complex augmented reality models. In: IEEE computer graphics and applications (CG&A), Special Issue on 3D Documents, vol 27, no 4, pp 48–57
Shin DH, Dunston PS (2008) Identification of application areas for augmented reality in industrial construction based on technology suitability. Autom Construct 17(7):882–894
Veas E, Grasset R, Kruijff E, Schmalstieg D (2012) Extended overview techniques for outdoor augmented reality. In: IEEE transactions on visualization and computer graphics, vol 18, pp 565–572
White S (2009) Sitelens: situated visualization techniques for urban site visits, Evaluation, pp 1117–1120
Zollmann S, Kalkofen D, Mendez E, Reitmayr G (2010) Image-based ghosting’s for single layer occlusions in augmented reality. In: International symposium on mixed and augmented reality. IEEE computer society, pp 19–26
Zollmann S, Schall G, Junghans S, Reitmayr G (2012) Comprehensible and interactive visualizations of GIS data in augmented reality, In: Proceedings of the 8th international symposium on visual computing (ISVC’12), Rethymnon, pp 675–685
Acknowledgments
This work was funded through the Austrian Research Promotion Agency (FFG) under the contract no. Bridge 811000 (Vidente) and FIT-IT 820922 (Smart Vidente), ALROEWPCO417/07 (POMAR3D) and the Austrian Science Fund FWF (W1209). Moreover, we thank our industrial project partners GRINTEC GmbH, ÖBB Infrastruktur Bau AG, Salzburg AG and Wienenergie Stromnetz for providing both real-world test data sets, hardware and network access, and valuable inputs to our research activities from the end-user perspective.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Electronic supplementary material
Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.
Supplementary material 1 (WMV 117256 kb)
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Schall, G., Zollmann, S. & Reitmayr, G. Smart Vidente: advances in mobile augmented reality for interactive visualization of underground infrastructure. Pers Ubiquit Comput 17, 1533–1549 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00779-012-0599-x
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00779-012-0599-x