In pursuit of consumer-accessible augmented virtuality

Abstract: This project is an examination of the possibility of using existing software to develop Virtual Reality (VR) software that includes key aspects of objects in a user’s surroundings into a virtual environment, producing Augmented Virtuality (AV). A defining limitation is the requirement that the software be consumer-accessible, meaning it needs run on a common smartphone with no additional equipment. Two related AV concepts were considered: shape reconstruction and positional tracking. Two categories of techniques were considered for taking the measurements of reality necessary to achieve those AV concepts using only a monocular RGB camera as sensor: monocular visual SLAM (mvSLAM) and Structure from Motion (SfM). Two lists of requirements were constructed, formalising the notions of AV and consumer-accessibility. A search process was then conducted, where existing software packages were evaluated for their suitability to be included in a piece of software fulfilling all requirements. The evaluations of SfM systems were made in combination with Multi-View Stereo (MVS) systems – a necessary complement for achieving visible shape reconstruction using a system that outputs point clouds. After thoroughly evaluating a variety of software, it was concluded that consumer-accessible AV can not currently be achieved by combining existing packages, due to several issues. While future hardware performance increases and new software implementations would solve complexity and availability issues, some inaccuracy and usability issues are inherent to the limitation of using a monocular camera.