Hardware Technologies
MRGIS is designed to operate on laptops and notebooks. In terms of hardware components two configurations are proposed: a simple and cost effective mode with low immersitivity and a complex and expensive mode with high immersion. In the first case, the user can operate the system based on the principles of monitor-based AR, using a laptop and a commercial web-camera. In the fully AR immersive mode, the user makes use of the capabilities of video-see through AR. In the latter case, a head-mounted display (HMD) and a bullet camera, which is mounted on top of the HMD, can be used.
Technical Characteristics
Video-based AR systems use video cameras to videoscope the real environment and mix it with digital (also called computer-generated) information in real-time performance (i.e. 25 fps). Then the mixed (real and digital) information can be projected onto the user's perception in a number of ways. The most characteristic types of displays include:
- Standard monitor displays (i.e. CRTs, LCD)
- Large area displays (i.e. Plasma screens)
- Small area displays (i.e. PDAs, 3G phones)
- HMDs (i.e. Cy-Visor)
