Mobile Augmented Reality (MAR)
Pervasive Computing has already become the computing trend of the next century and, hence, the research of wearable computer has attracted significant attention. The famous propaganda slogan of Nokia Company - Connecting People (science and technology come from the human nature all the time) proclaims the interaction among the scientific and technological products and the people. Due to the immature development of the scientific and technological products in the past, there are passive operational relations between the computer and people. With the progress of relevant technology in the semiconductor, the development trend of computer becomes smaller, cheaper and more quickly, even more intelligent. Steve Mann considered the mobile computing as:” it belongs to the personal space, is controlled by the users, and operates under interdynamic continuation at the same time (constancy)”. In other words, it is “always on and always accessible". The computer that supports this characteristic is called "wearable computer".
My research interest about the Pervasive Computing is focus on the Mobile Augment Reality technique. Particularly, I am interested in designing a mobile multimedia platform for the wearable computer. This platform can run on a device with limited memory, able to autonomously locate wearer’s position, provide multimedia communication capability, and interact with others through wireless communication. For example, the Land Worrier system, US DoD, is an example of such system. The following figure is a prototype system of my current research result. At this moment, this system fixes aims at the application of the security of a large-scale factory.
[Related Publication]
● J.Y. Huang, C. H. Tsai, “A Wearable Computing Environment For The Security Of A Large-Scale Factory”, HCI International 2007, Beijing, China, July 2007. (pdf)
● Jiung-yao Huang and Y. W. Su, “Wearable Computer Research among Digital Mobil Security Environment”, Communication of IICM (Institute of Information & Computing Machinery), Vol. 8, No. 3，September 2005. p.p. 145-160. (In Chinese) (pdf)
行動擴增實境
隨著電腦科技的進步，電腦硬體朝 向輕薄短小但功能倍增的方向發展，而在軟體發展方面則朝向個人化與生活化的應用不斷在研究，因此整體的電腦科技已經由集中式運算 轉成分散式運算，進而朝向行動計算來發展，而普及式計算則是進一步結合各式各樣感應器於行動計算環境內，使得使用者的日常生活資 訊能夠更便利的取得。簡單的說，普及式計算使得瀰漫在人類日常生活環境的各式各樣資訊能夠透過各種感應器的偵測與計算，藉由行動 通訊來傳遞給使用者以提供更方便的日常生活環境。要達到此境界，內嵌式電腦、有線與無線環境、以及分散式運算都是不可或缺的技 術。總而言之，對普及式計算環境而言，所涵蓋的技術包括穿戴式電腦、資訊顯示技術、遠端資訊存取技術、高容錯的網路環境、及行動 計算技術、環境認知技術、及高效率電池技術。
普及式計算(Pervasive Computing)已 成為21世紀熱門的研究議題，IEEE學 會甚至有專屬此研究議題的期刊，就稱為Pervasive Computing。普及式 計算(Pervasive Computing)的基本精神是要人類可以隨時隨地的使 用電腦來幫他服務，同時讓他可以隨處存取所需之資訊，而其所涵蓋的研究領域及技術範圍極廣，黃老師對此議題的研究興趣在於如何將”分散式系統”與”虛擬實境”結 合，具體的說，此項研究議題在於穿戴式電腦所需之內嵌式作業 系統，而此內嵌式作業系統具有擴增實境(Augmented Reality)功能與即時訊息傳輸技術，讓使用者的真實生活可以與虛擬物件融合， 例如，使用者可以隨時接收到由環境所傳來之即時資訊，此即時資訊可以用圖形方式來顯示，來增強使用者的即時辦識速度，甚至透過分 散式技術與他人互動。
舉例來說，美國陸軍所研發的「數位戰士系統」就是屬於此類型研究的成功應用實例，所謂的「數位戰士」是讓戰士穿上穿戴式電腦，透過穿戴式電腦的無線通訊功 能與定位功能，指揮官不僅容易得知戰士的位置以指揮作戰，指揮官與戰士也可以密切聯絡交換戰場訊息並下達指令。同時，後方的伺服 器可以將穿戴戰士所在環境的資訊即時傳給他，以擴增實境(Augmented Reality)技術顯示在穿戴者的單眼頭戴顯示器(Head Mounted Display)上，使得戰士可以得到即時的戰場訊息，例如，透過單眼的頭戴顯示器，他可以 看到前方是否有個地雷區？而黃老師的實驗室也已經研發出如下圖所示之穿戴式電腦設備概念雛型，目前將此系統的用途設定在行動保全 應用。
[相關論文]
● J.Y. Huang, C. H. Tsai, “A Wearable Computing Environment For The Security Of A Large-Scale Factory”, HCI International 2007, Beijing, China, July 2007. (pdf)
● 黃俊堯、蘇彥文，”數位行動保全環境之穿戴式電腦研究”，中 華民國資訊學會通訊，Vol. 8, No. 3，2005年9月，第145頁至第160頁。 (pdf)