I
`
`Short
`
`Papers
`
`I
`
`May
`
`7-11
`
`1995
`
`n CHI’95
`
`MOSAIC OF CREATIVITY
`
`Audio Augmented Reality:
`A Prototype Automated Tour Guide
`
`B. Bederson *
`Benjamin
`Bell Communications Research
`445 South Street
`Morristown, NJ 07960
`(bederson@bellcore.tom)
`
`KEYWORDS
`reality, museum tour guides, virtual
`Audio
`augmented
`reality, social
`interaction,
`
`for a collection of
`beginning to experiment with it (see [2]
`several research articles, or [1] for a survey).
`
`ABSTRACT
`environ-
`augmented
`(or computer
`reality
`Augmented
`uses computers
`to
`is sometimes
`called)
`ments as it
`enhance the richness of the real world.
`It differs from vir-
`tual
`reality
`in that
`it doesn’t attempt
`to replace the real
`world. Our prototype automated tour guide superimposes
`audio on the world based on where a user is located. We
`propose this technique for use as an automated tour guide
`in museums and expect
`it will enhance the social aspects
`of museum visits, compared to taped tour guides.
`
`INTRODUCTION
`interaction
`retrieval, social
`For many types of information
`is critical
`to the experience. For instance, why do people
`go to live music concerts instead of
`listening to compact
`discs at home? Partly because of
`the different
`quality of
`sound, but it is also largely due to the social experience of
`being at the live show, being with your friends, and being
`part of the audience.
`
`MUSEUM TOURS
`has
`version of augmented reality
`One place a low-tech
`long been in the marketplace is museums.
`It is quite com-
`mon for museums
`to rent audio-tape
`tour guides that
`viewers carry around with them as they tour the exhibits.
`
`While this technology works reasonably well, many peo-
`ple using it become frustrated because it seems to obstruct
`some of
`their social purposes in attending
`the museum.
`As with music, part of
`the reason many people go to
`museums is to socialize,
`to be with friends and to discuss
`the exhibit as they experience it. Taped tour guides con-
`flict with these goals because the tapes are linear, pre-
`planned, and go at their own pace. This makes it hard to
`stay with friends because if one person turns off
`their tape
`temporarily,
`it is very difficult
`to get synchronized again.
`
`describe only a rela-
`the taped tours typically
`In addition,
`tively
`small subset of
`the pieces on exhibit. The pieces
`described on tape may not be the ones a particular
`viewer
`is interested
`in hearing. But because the tape must be
`accessed linearly,
`it
`is impossible
`to skip over or access
`descriptions out of order.
`
`enhances our
`that computation
`Many people believe
`everyday lives. But many of the forms in which comput-
`ers aid us also work to isolate us. Perhaps the most glar-
`AUDIO AUGMENTED REALITYPROTOTYPE
`reali~, where the main point
`ing example of this is virtual
`A more technologically
`sophisticated
`tour guide, on the
`is to take us out of
`the physical world by replacing
`our
`other hand, can offer
`the benefits of automation without
`senses with computer-generated
`ones.
`the social conflicts caused by the taped tour guide.
`to
`is an attempt
`ontheother hand,
`reality,
`Augmented
`We have built a prototype audio augmented reality-based
`combine our real world interactions with the richness of
`tour guide. This system replaces analog audio tapes with
`computational
`information without
`isolating people from
`random access digital audio.
`In addition,
`it adds a micro-
`each other. The basic idea is to superimpose
`computer
`computer
`and an invisible
`spatial
`locating
`device
`that
`generated data on top of
`the real world,
`as the person
`allow much more freedom for
`the participant.
`moves within
`it. This idea was originally
`described by
`Myron Krueger
`[4], but now a number of groups are
`
`is
`fee all or part of this material
`Permission to copy without
`or distributed for
`granted provided that the copies are not made
`direct commercial advantage,
`the ACM copyright notice and the
`title of the publication
`and its date appear, and notice is given
`that copying is by permission of ACM. To copy otherwise, or to
`republish,
`requires a fee and/or specific permission.
`CH1’ Companion 95, Denver, Colorado, USA
`@ 1995 ACM 0-89791 -755-3/95/0005 ...$3.50
`
`210
`
`l Current address: bederson @cs.unm.edu,
`Computer Science Department, University of New Mexico,
`Albuquerque, NM 87131.
`
`

`

`CHI’95
`
`MOSAIC OF CREATIVITY
`
`n May
`
`7-11
`
`1995
`
`Short
`
`Papers
`
`The idea is to allow visitors to hear descriptions of pieces
`just by walking up to them. Descriptions may be heard in
`any order, and can be cut short by walking away. Friends
`visiting
`together can stay in sync very naturally
`just by
`walking up to a piece at the same time. When they walk
`away from a piece the description will stop and they may
`talk amongst
`themselves.
`
`Because the digital storage device can hold two and a half
`hours of audio,
`the tour planner can describe many more
`pieces in the exhibit
`than any viewer will
`likely see. This
`gives much more control
`to the viewer
`since they can
`hear descriptions of pieces they want
`to hear about.
`
`the viewer
`consists of a few devices that
`This prototype
`carries with them: a random-access digital audio source
`(modified
`Sony MiniDisc
`‘M player), a microprocessor
`(Motorola M68332),
`and a custom infrared receiver
`that
`tells the computer where the viewer
`is. A very small
`infrared
`transmitter
`is placed in the ceiling above each
`piece to be described.
`It
`transmits a unique identifying
`number
`that
`the computer uses to identify
`the location of
`the viewer. As the viewer walks around,
`the computer
`simply controls the audio source to play or stop playing
`pre-recorded
`descriptions. See Figure 1 for a schematic
`diagram of the system.
`
`Receiver
`
`Microcontroller
`
`Digital audio
`
`~
`
`*
`
`A
`
`Figure 1: Schematic of automated tour guide proto-
`type.
`
`of modify-
`offers the possibility
`technology
`This type of
`ing the descriptions
`of pieces based on the particular
`interaction
`history of
`this viewer with the exhibit. This
`notion, more generally
`referred to as history-enriched
`
`the
`if
`in [3]. For example,
`is described
`objects
`digital
`computer noticed that the viewer had looked at several
`pieces by one artist,
`it could offer extra background infor-
`mation on that artist. Or it could relate pieces currently
`being viewed to particular pieces that this viewer
`recently
`saw. There could even be a “restroom button”
`on the
`device which would
`give the viewer
`directions
`to the
`nearest restroom.
`
`in
`but
`technology,
`One group [5] has created a similar
`to a cen-
`individuals
`reverse,
`to identify
`the locations of
`tralized
`computer
`system.
`In this system, people carry
`around small
`infrared transmitters,
`and there is a single
`receiver
`in the ceiling of each room.
`
`with new
`Some museums have begun experimenting
`guide technologies,
`but
`they still have some limitations.
`One popular approach is to have some local audio broad-
`cast technology
`so that each piece broadcasts a descrip-
`tion of
`itself
`in continuous
`cycles. The disadvantage
`of
`this approach is that participants often walk up to a piece
`mid-way through a description.
`In this case, they hear the
`second half
`first, and then the description
`starts over
`again.
`It
`is vital
`that
`the user carry the audio source with
`them so the descriptions
`can be heard on the user’s time
`schedule.
`
`CONCLUSION
`Augmenting
`rather than replacing the external world can
`take advantage of computation without
`conflicting
`with
`social concerns. We introduce
`a prototype museum tour
`guide based on augmented reality which shows that more
`appropriate technology
`can enrich our experiences with-
`out interfering with our social
`interactions as much.
`
`ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
`I con-
`It was with him that
`I am indebted to Jim Hollan.
`ceived of
`this idea on a subway ride to New York City.
`And I am thankful
`to Chris Calabrese who wrote much of
`the software for the prototype.
`
`REFERENCES
`Bederson, B.B and Druin, A. Computer Augmented Envi-
`[1]
`ronments: New Places to Learn, Work and Play, ed. Jakob
`Nielsen,
`in Advances
`in Human Computer
`Interaction,
`Vol. 5, Ablex Press, In Press.
`
`[2]
`
`[3]
`
`[4]
`
`[5]
`
`of
`Communications
`mented Environments,
`
`the ACM, Special
`Issue
`36 (7), July, 1993.
`
`on Aug-
`
`D. and McCandless,
`Hill, W. C., Hollan, J.D., Wroblewski,
`T., Edit Wear and Read Wear,
`in Proceedings
`of Human
`Systems (CHI
`‘92), ACM Press, pp.
`Factors in Computing
`3-9, 1992.
`
`Krueger, M. W., Artificial
`1991.
`
`Reality
`
`II, Addison-Wesley,
`
`J., The
`Want, R., Hopper, A., Falcao, V. and Gibbons,
`Active Badge Location
`System, ACM Transactions
`on
`Information
`Systems. Vol. 10 (l), pp. 91-102, Jan. 1992.
`
`21 “1
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