SBIR Phase I: Immersive Augmented Reality Landscape Viewer for Public Space Deployment

该SBIR第一阶段项目将探索将增强现实双目信息亭引入公共场所的技术，商业和教育潜力，以及它们对公众理解一个地方产生持久影响的能力。拟议的研究和开发阶段将侧重于与伙伴地点一起部署和实地测试一系列原型，并审查其在吸引和告知这些地点的游客方面的效力。该项目更广泛的意义是开发一种信息设备和生态系统，使公众更好地了解著名的地方和更大的物理世界。Deployment将能够可视化各种特定地点的数据，从环境条件到地质构造和地标导航。与地点合作可以产生潜在的收入，从而使项目与地点之间能够实现可持续的长期合作。通过增加人流量和鼓励对空间的额外探索，对地点及其周围环境带来直接的经济影响。正在提出的创新是立体宽视野透视增强现实观察器，其形式是景观双目亭，旨在为公共空间提供一种让游客参与该地点的自然，科学和历史特征的方式。除了显示沉浸式媒体体验光学覆盖到真实的世界的视图，该项目创建了一个分布式媒体网络上的位置，以共享数据和内容的远程查看和分析。研究的目标和范围包括在长时间的公共暴露中对设备进行耐久性测试，用户界面和软件工具的有效性，了解设备到设备通信的范围和带宽，以及光学，机电和传感器组件的优化。方法和途径将包括与合作伙伴地点的原型装置的现场测试，并使用调查和分析技术来评估这些地点干预措施的总体定量和定性效果。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并被认为值得通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估来支持。

This SBIR Phase I project will explore the technical, commercial, and educational potentials of bringing augmented reality binocular kiosks to public locations and their ability to create lasting impact on the public's understanding of a place. The proposed research and development phase will focus on the deployment and field testing of a collection of prototypes with partner locations, and examine their efficacy at engaging and informing visitors of those sites. The broader significance of the project is the development of an information device and ecosystem that gives the public a better understanding of notable places and the greater physical world. Deployments will be able to visualize a variety of site-specific data, from environmental conditions, to geological formations and landmark navigation. Potential revenue can be generated in partnership with locations, allowing for sustainable long-term engagements between the project and a site. Direct economic impact is brought to a location and its surroundings through increased foot traffic and the encouragement of additional exploration of a space.The innovation being proposed is stereoscopic wide-field-of-view see-through augmented reality viewers in the form of landscape binocular kiosks designed to give public spaces a way to engage visitors with the natural, scientific, and historic features of that location. In addition to displaying immersive media experiences optically overlaid onto a view of the real world, this project creates a distributed media network on that location to share data and content for remote viewing and analysis. Goals and scope of research include durability testing of the devices in prolonged public exposure, effectiveness of the user interface and software tools, understanding the range and bandwidth of device-to-device communication, and optimization of the optical, electromechanical, and sensor components. Methods and approaches will include the field testing of prototype units with partner locations, and using survey and analysis techniques to evaluate the overall quantitative and qualitative efficacy of the intervention at those sites.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.