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Henderson and Feiner first gathered laser scans and photography of the inside of the vehicle. They built a 3-D model of the vehicle's cockpit and developed software for directing and instructing users in performing individual maintenance tasks. Ten cameras inside the cockpit were used to track the position of three infrared LEDs attached to the user's head-worn display. In the future, the team suggests that it may be more practical for cameras or sensors to be worn by the users themselves.
Six participants carried out 18 tasks using the AR system. For comparison, the same participants also used an untracked headset (showing static text instructions and views without arrows or direction to components) and a stationary computer screen with the same graphics and models used in the headset. The mechanics using the AR system located and started repair tasks 56 percent faster, on average, than when wearing the untracked headset, and 47 percent faster than when using just a stationary computer screen.
"From a research point of view, [this work] is the best comparison yet of the different approaches you can take between a normal multimedia system, a wearable one, and a fully augmented-reality one," says Georgia Institute of Technology professor Blair MacIntyre, who has worked with Feiner in the past but was not involved in this project.
Next, the team wants to expand the AR system so that it tells users how to perform a task better and faster. "We believe that by paying attention to the actual task itself, and giving advice about how to do it, we could get similar types of improvements using AR," says Feiner. "That is something we want very much to explore." In terms of practical AR systems for widespread use, Feiner says that having displays that aren't too cumbersome or bulky will be important.
Even though the Columbia AR system was designed to help trained personnel repair a particular vehicle, similar technology could have a broader impact, says MacIntyre. Such a system could help regular car mechanics and eventually ordinary drivers. "If you're going to build an elaborate system with all of the information about the engine, you can then build a stripped-down version [that] makes building those end-user systems more feasible," he says. MacIntyre adds that a smart phone app showing how to change an engine's oil probably isn't far off but that headset technology will probably take longer to arrive.
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This document is part of the “How-To Guide for Most Common Measurements” centralized resource portal. This tutorial provides a detailed guide for measurement and device considerations to take temperature measurements using thermocouples. Get an introduction to thermocouples, which are inexpensive sensing devices widely used with PC-based data acquisition systems. Also review some specific thermocouple examples and learn how thermocouples work and ways to integrate them into a data acquisition measurement system.
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