This stage serves demonstrates the usage of the AR Second Life client in combination with the visual tracker ARToolkit Plus. The stage is configured to use two ARToolkit Plus Marker, ID 000 and ID 010 (marker_image)
To setup the ARToolkit, please refer to page “Using the AR Second Life Client”

To see object tracking click on one of the objects located on the floor, e.g. the whiskey bottle. Then enable object tracking in the Augmented Reality menu. To disable tracking for a particular object, click it again. An LSL script in these objects issues the appropiate commands.

This AR Stage is used to prototype an ongoing research project to study Presence in Augmented Reality application. A virtual pit, superimposed on a live video feed, is presented to participants, which perceive the scene through a Head Mounted Display. Chromatic keying allows perfect blending, as physical objects above the pit block virtual objects (Quicktime Movie)

Various parameters like graphics, different post effects and the depth of the scene can be tested instantaniously, providing important feedback for the final implementation and study.

In Augmented Reality authoring based on Massive Multiplayer Online Worlds, AR experiences are less like “applications” that are designed, loaded and executed, and more like an “installation” that is created, evolved and performed in a defined area in the virtual world. We call these areas AR stages, in similarity to a theatrical stages were performances are situated. The virtual world provides a spatial setting for these AR stages, along with a surrounding area to create the content and behavior for them.

An AR Stage in the virtual world of Second Life