Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
6.1 Introduction
Pervasive computing (PvC) has already become the computing trend of the
next century and, consequently, the research of a wearable computer has
attracted significant attention. The famous propaganda slogan of the Nokia
Company-Connecting People (science and technology come from human
nature all the time) proclaims the interaction among the scientific, techno-
logical products and people. Due to the immature development of the scien-
tific and technological products in the past, there were passive operational
relations between the computer and people. With the progressive improve-
ment of relevant technology in the semiconductor, the trend of a computer
becomes smaller, cheaper, and more quickly, even more intelligent [1]. Steve
Mann [2] considered mobile computing “it belongs to the personal space,
controlled by the users, and operated interdynamic continuation at the same
time (constancy).” In other words, it is always on and always accessible. The
computer that supports this characteristic is called a wearable computer.
This chapter presents research to couple the networked virtual environment
and mobile augmented reality into a multiplayer mobile augmented reality
(MiMAR), so that all the distributed users of the same physical environment
can increase interaction with each other. That is, a user of the MiMAR sys-
tem can become aware of and interact with other MiMAR users in the same
physical environment even though they are visually obstructed from each
other. With the MiMAR system, the wearable computers are continuously
exchanging messages on the background that allow you to unobstructedly
collaborate with a long distance partner as if they were next to you.
6.2 Related Works
The major technologies to achieving a ubiquitous network virtual environ-
ment are the network virtual reality, PvC, and mobile augment reality. The
framework of these technologies are the sensor network, the seamless com-
munication, and the wearable computing. This section will briefly outline
the previous research focused on these issues.
Recent research on seamless networks [3,4] proposed a “fast hand off” and
a “smooth hand off” model to accommodate mobility across heterogeneous
networks that use standard protocol (i.e., IP). These researches attempt to
seamlessly and automatically hand off the user information from one access
point to another. They also minimize handoff-related delays and packet loss,
so that the network session can be persistent among the different access
points. An important application of the seamless communication technology
