Visual tracking for Augmented Reality

Localization of mobile devices is an essential task in Augmented Reality and has therefore been an active research topic for many years. Typically, indoor tracking approaches, such as methods based on infrared or ultra-wide-band, require preparations of the environment and special hardware sensors. Conversely, image feature tracking approaches can provide orientation estimates without special tracking hardware installations. With the advent of mobile devices equipped with sensors such as digital cameras, image based localization gains importance in Augmented Reality. Typically, fiducial marker tracking was considered as a standard image based localization method. We propose the use of natural image feature based tracking methods, which are a generalization of the same principals but do not require the presence of fiducial tracking targets.