IMAGINE looking out across the central European plains and seeing dinosaurs in their natural habitat. Or looking at the Parthenon in Athens and seeing it in all its original glory. Images like this could become common at tourist spots, thanks to the marriage of coin-operated telescopes with 鈥渁ugmented reality鈥� technology.
This week, computer scientists begin testing an AR viewer that superimposes computer images onto the view seen through a modified telescope. Instead of using the telescope鈥檚 optics, the objective end of the telescope is a simple open aperture. A built-in PC projects the AR images onto a transparent display stationed between the eyepiece and the aperture, so the viewer sees the real scene overlaid with graphics that change realistically as the telescope pans or tilts.
Motion sensors ensure that the PC knows exactly where the telescope is pointing and allows it to match still or animated images to the view. Unlike virtual-reality devices, which show only computer generated images, the AR system overlays its images on reality. This is difficult as the system needs to track exactly where the viewer is looking in order to fit the graphics to the view.
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But by building the technology into a fixed telescope, Ulrich Bockholt and his colleagues at the Fraunhofer Institute for Computer Graphics in Darmstadt, Germany, have sidestepped this problem.
This week鈥檚 test of a prototype of the device will show how a planned conference centre at the Technical University of Darmstadt will look when it is built.
To commercialise the telescope idea, Bockholt and his colleagues are working with Euroscope, Europe鈥檚 largest maker of coin-operated telescopes and Trivisio, a maker of high-definition AR displays, both based in Germany.
鈥淲e need about 40 visitors a day each paying 鈧�1 to make it viable,鈥� says Bockholt who hopes to set up devices at sites such as Olympia, Greece, site of the first Olympic games.
