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[In frames? Break out]

Note that we have made some very significant developments in the hardware used for our outdoor AR research. Visit the Tinmith home page to see our latest 2006 system which is our first system designed to be rugged, miniaturised, and very powerful. We can also custom build these systems for tasks such as visualisation and simulation projects. Note that we have also updated some new videos running on the current system here and here

Frequently asked questions:

We have prepared a page with frequently asked questions which we get about the project quite a bit, so please have a look at this as it has a lot of extra information.

What is it?:

ARQuake is an Augmented Reality (AR) version of the popular Quake game. Augmented Reality is the overlaying of computer generated information onto the real world. Unlike a Virtual Reality (VR) world, where the viewer sees a completely synthetic (virtual) environment, users immersed in an AR environment can still see the real world. A classic example of an AR device is the "Heads Up Display" found in Fighter Aircraft. In this case, information about the aeroplanes position and speed or about the enemy aircraft is displayed over the real image of the world outside. The pilot's understanding of the world they are looking at is increased as extra information is augmenting the information which they are naturally picking up from the environment with their eyes. My research group consists of five honours students, a supervisor and a Ph.D. Student. Our task at the moment is to take all the monsters and the guns etc. out of the quake game and to make them roam around a real environment. We also required the player of the game to move around the real world and have all the monsters appear as though they were standing next to and behind real buildings.We chose Quake for this project as the source code is now freely available, meaning we didn't have to write our own game from scratch, and even though Quake is getting a little "Long in the Tooth" as far as "First Person Shooter" (FPS) games go, this technology could be added to the latest games.We started by mapping our university campus and building a quake environment out of it. We added our own textures to give a grid pattern, which is easier to see when this image is composited with the real world.

(mock up image)

We added all of the Monsters etc. to keep the playability of the game

(mock up image)

We then display this image inside special AR Goggles that are semi-transparent and let the real world into the picture as well.

(mock up image)

Now that we have a combined image, the software must be set up so that when you move in the real world, the quake world moves as well, keeping the two aligned. When this works perfectly, the last step is to remove the texturing of the buildings, ground and sky to make it transparent.

(mock up image)

And there you have it!! - well almost. To allow the player to move around in the real world, they are required to walk as usual. To make the quake world know where the user is is much more complex. We are using combinations of digital compasses, inclinometers, GPS (satellite) tracking and pattern recognition technologies just to work out exactly where we are in the real world, then tell quake about it.Of course there are many problems to solve before this works perfectly. There are issues with the alignment of the two worlds, accurate tracking in the outside world and lighting problems to solve.Even though this is just a game, there are many uses for this type of technology. To read more, click on the thumbnail of a newspaper article about us, which was recently published in an Adelaide newspaper.