Implementation of god-like interaction techniques for supporting collaboration between outdoor AR and indoor tabletop users

This paper presents a new interaction metaphor we have termed "god-like interaction". This is a metaphor for improved communication of situational and navigational information between outdoor users, equipped with mobile augmented reality systems, and indoor users, equipped with tabletop projector display systems. Physical objects are captured by a series of cameras viewing a table surface indoors, the data is sent over a wireless network, and is then reconstructed at a real-world location for outdoor augmented reality users. Our novel god-like interaction metaphor allows users to communicate information using physical props as well as natural gestures. We have constructed a system that implements our god-like interaction metaphor as well as a series of novel applications to facilitate collaboration between indoor and outdoor users. We have extended a well-known video based rendering algorithm to make it suitable for use on outdoor wireless networks of limited bandwidth. This paper also describes the limitations and lessons learned during the design and construction of the hardware that supports this research.