Collaborative visualization of simulated processes using tabletop fiducial augmented reality

In typical scenarios of construction planning, engineers communicate ideas primarily using paper based media (e.g. drawings) spread across table surfaces. Even though the traditional communication approach offers convenient interaction among participants, the media used are cumbersome to handle. Moreover, they present static information that cannot reflect the dynamic nature of a jobsite. These limitations can be somewhat overcome by computer based virtual environments. However, the convenience of interactive collaboration among participants is lost. This paper introduces tabletop fiducial Augmented Reality to bridge the gap between paper based static information and computer based graphical models. A software named ARVita is developed to validate this idea, where multiple users wearing Head-Mounted Displays and sitting across a table can observe and interact with visual simulations of planned processes. The applications of collaborative visualization using Augmented Reality are reviewed, and the technical implementation of ARVita is presented.