User Friendly Calibration for Tracking of Optical Stereo See-Through Head Worn Displays for Augmented Reality

Abstract

In recent time devices like Google Glass and Oculus Rift gained a lot of public attention. So the field of Virtual and Augmented Reality has become a more and more attractive field of study. Optical Stereo See-Through Head Worn Displays (OST-HWD or OST-HMD) can be used for Augmented Reality, but have to be calibrated. This means, that one has to find a configuration, that aligns the image shown on the displays with the environment, which is observed by the built-in camera. If this is not done, the augmented virtual image would not align with the real world. In this paper, the process of this calibration approach is divided into two stages, hardware and user calibration, but with less constraints for the positions of the cameras, which makes it easier to use. We aim at a more user friendly suite for the calibration of OST-HWD devices. Therefore both of the aforementioned stages are combined in a new quick step-by-step installation wizard, which is written in HTML and JavaScript to ensure easy usability. We apply a new minimization model in order to simplify and robustify the calculations of the virtual plane. In addition to that the required hardware components, including camera and calibration rig, were simplified. The implemented software has been evaluated for its results of the computed virtual plane, intrinsic data and eye positions of the user. Finally a user study was conducted to rate the usability of the calibration process.