Pose Estimation in an Outdoors Augmented Reality Mobile Application

Abstract: This thesis proposes a solution to the pose estimation problem for mobile devices in an outdoors environment. The proposed solution is intended for usage within an augmented reality application to visualize large objects such as buildings. As such, the system needs to provide both accurate and stable pose estimations with real-time requirements. The proposed solution combines inertial navigation for orientation estimation with a vision-based support component to reduce noise from the inertial orientation estimation. A GNSS-based component provides the system with an absolute reference of position. The orientation and position estimation were tested in two separate experiments. The orientation estimate was tested with the camera in a static position and orientation and was able to attain an estimate that is accurate and stable down to a few fractions of a degree. The position estimation was able to achieve centimeter-level stability during optimal conditions. Once the position had converged to a location, it was stable down to a couple of centimeters, which is sufficient for outdoors augmented reality applications.