Universitat Pompeu Fabra

AR Magic Lantern

Universitat Pompeu Fabra

AR Magic Lantern

The AR Magic Lantern is an augmented reality flashlight that enables users to see and interact with virtual content projected onto physical surfaces around them. It is designed especially to support group-oriented, co-located, and situated AR experiences.

Shared AR Experiences

Projected content is truly a part of the physical space and is thus relevant for all members of a group. Nobody is left out of the experience.

6-DoF Inside-out Tracking

The AR Magic Lantern tracks its position and orientation over large areas, making it suitable for sites that cannot use external markers or beacons.

Gesture-based Interaction System

With embodied interaction, Lantern holders and the rest of the group can engage in interactive experiences without external buttons or controllers.

World-as-Support: A new paradigm for AR

Digital content is projected as a layer on top of physical surroundings, locating the place for interaction in the world, not on a screen.

.

World-as-Support

[WaS]

AR Magic Lantern

Window-on-the-World

[WoW]

Smartphone AR

Head-mounted AR

[HMD]

HoloLens, Magic Leap, etc.

Focus:

Physical world as focus
physical world is primary source of meaning

WaS

Screen as focus
physical world is behind the barrier (digital divider) of a screen

WoW

Partial world as focus
physical world is digitized or dimmed

HMD

Social:

Group-oriented
all members of the group can participate

WaS

Solo-oriented
only device holders can participate

WoW

Solo-oriented
only device wearers can participate

HMD

Interaction:

Embodied interaction
device holders and non-holders interact with full body

WaS

Screen interaction
device holders interact with finger on a screen

WoW

Mixed interaction
device wearers interact with fingers, hands, gestures, etc.

HMD

Safety:

Non-invasive & non-obstructive
device is handheld and doesn't block user's visual field

WaS

Non-invasive, obstructive
device is handheld but blocks user's visual field (digital divider)

WoW

Invasive & obstructive
device must be worn, frame and content block user's visual field

HMD

Form:

Torch metaphor
for centuries, humans have used light to explore spaces

WaS

Frame metaphor
user is holding a video screen that frames the world

WoW

Expanded vision metaphor
user is wearing technology to expand their senses

HMD

AR Design Research @FubIntLab

Starting with the World-as-Support AR paradigm in 2015, the AR Magic Lantern is the product of ongoing research conducted by the Full-Body Interaction Lab at Universitat Pompeu Fabra.

AR Magic Lantern research prototype B

AR Magic Lantern research prototype C

Research on AR in museums

AR Magic Lantern research prototype D

The Full-body Interaction Lab meeting area

Publications

Hine, P., Tadesse Mamo, L., & Pares, N. (2022, April). AR Magic Lantern: Group-based Co-Located Augmentation Based on the World-as-Support AR Paradigm. In CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems Extended Abstracts (CHI ’22). https://doi.org/10.1145/3491101.3519918

Schaper, Marie-Monique; Santos, Maria; Malinverni, Laura; Zerbini Berro, Juan; Pares, Narcis. (2018) Learning about the past through situatedness, embodied exploration and digital augmentation of cultural heritage sites. International Journal of Human-Computer Studies 2018; 114( ): 36-50. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhcs.2018.01.003

Schaper, Marie-Monique; Santos, Maria; Pares, Narcís. (2018) Orchestrating experts' assumptions and children's values in the design of Virtual Heritage experiences. International Journal of Child-Computer Interaction 2018.https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijcci.2018.02.001

Marie-Monique Schaper, Maria Santos, Laura Malinverni and Narcis Pares. (2017). Co-Designing Virtual Heritage Experiences for Archaeological Sites based on the novel AR Paradigm World-as-Support. ACM Celebration of Women in Computing, WomENcourage Conference 2017.

Marie-Monique Schaper, Maria Santos, Laura Malinverni and Narcis Pares. (2017). Towards the Design of a Virtual Heritage Experience based on the World-as-Support Interaction Paradigm. In Proceedings of the CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI ’17). https://dx.doi.org/10.1145/3027063.3053089

Malinverni L, Maya J, Schaper MM, Pares N. The World-as-Support: Embodied Exploration, Understanding and Meaning-Making of the Augmented World. In: Gloria Mark, Susan Fussell. CHI EA '17 Proceedings of the 2017 CHI Conference Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Systems. 1 ed. ACM; 2017. p. 5132-5144.https://doi.org/10.1145/3025453.3025955

Where are we going?

With funding from Horizon Europe, the Full-Body Interaction Lab will develop the AR Magic Lantern into a production-ready prototype and focus on the following key objectives:

1.

Develop a sophisticated computer vision system that adapts to large, dynamic environments and requires no special mapping hardware or external tracking.

2.

Build a robust and integrated hardware prototype using state of the art vision and projector components.

3.

Build a development platform for experience designers wanting to deploy novel AR applications that are truly useful in public spaces.

4.

Publish a comprehensive resource library for the World-as-Support paradigm, including documentation, open-source code, and useful samples and case studies.