A Middleware Architecture for Mobile and Pervasive Large-Scale Augmented Reality Games

Ubiquitous or pervasive computing is a new kind of computing, where specialized elements of hardware and software will have such a high level of deployment that their use will be fully integrated with the environment. Augmented reality extends reality with virtual elements but tries to place the computer in a relatively unobtrusive, assistive role. Specialized network middleware solutions for large scale mobile and pervasive augmented reality games are, to our knowledge, inexistent. The work presented in this paper focuses on the creation of such type of network middleware for mobile and pervasive entertainment, applied to the area of large scale augmented reality games. In this paper we describe the architecture of the system, which works over a 3GPP network. The paper presents architectural and implementation aspects, along with evaluation results. The results show that the proposed solution is able to cope with the stringiest requirements of augmented reality systems.