A wearable augmented reality testbed for navigation and control, built solely with commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) hardware

Personal applications employing augmented reality (AR) technology for information systems require ease of use and wearability. Progress in hardware miniaturization is enabling the development of wearable testbeds for such applications, providing sufficient computing power for the demanding AR tasks. Rockwell Science Center has assembled a wearable testbed for AR applications, comprised only of commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) hardware components. The system is designed to be worn like a jacket, with all the hardware attached and affixed to a vest frame (Xybernaut) with concealed routing of cables under Velcro channels. Two possible configurations allow the system to be used either in a stand-alone mode (the Intelligent Tetherless Wearable Augmented Reality Navigation System, or "itWARNS") or to be linked to a larger-scale multi-modal user interface testbed (the Wearable Immersive Multi-Media Information System, or "WIMMIS"). Completely tetherless operation is made possible by wireless digital connections as well as analog video and 3D audio connections over radio frequencies (RF). This paper describes these two testbed configurations, as well as some of the AR applications developed on this testbed.