Augmented reality (AR) is a variation of Virtual reality (VR). In contrast with VR, AR allows a user to work with and examine the physical world, while receiving additional information about the objects in it. AR supplements reality, rather than replacing it. One of most crucial characteristics in AR is to immerse virtual objects into the real word. That is, virtual and real scenes must be visible at the same time with mutual occlusion; The real and virtual scenes should be combined seamlessly. In this seminar, we will discuss several key issues to accomplish the combination. The following are discussed: An optical see-through (OST) head-mounted display (HMD) for AR with mutual occlusion and intensity matching capabilities, a novel video see-trough tabletop AR system with 6DOF hybrid tracking system; and some methods for estimating the illumination of the real world in the AR application.

Dr. Ya Zhou is an associate professor in the School of Optoelectronics at Beijing Institute of Technology (BIT), Beijing, China. She is currently a visiting scholar working with Dr. David McAllister in the Department of Computer Science, NCSU, in stereo imaging. Dr. Zhou also does research in optical instruments.