3D-registered interaction-surfaces in augmented reality space

The user interface and its ease of use are seen as a crucial point for the enduring success of almost any application. The creation of effective user interfaces is no simple task, especially within the domain of augmented reality. Many developers still use traditional desktop-interfaces for their AR applications, even if they are not really suitable for the user, simply because the development of a usable 3D interface is much too complicated and thus consuming too much time and money. This paper describes the ARGUI system, which provides developers of ARToolkit applications with the possibility to create 2D interaction-surfaces registered in 3D. With ARGUI 2D interactions on 2D objects registered in 3D are possible, e.g. attached to a marker. The integration of a complete 2D GUI library is shown in detail, which simplifies the creation of the user interface even more.