User:Npederson97/Augmented reality

For this assignment I plan to contribute meaningful additions to the article on the topic of Augmented Reality. These would include the following:

- A substantial expansion of the section on the difference between Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality. This would include further citations on sources that cover the topic and would broaden the amount of examples that differentiate the two mediums.

- A new addition to the section on Healthcare planning, practice and education. This would cover a story on how how augmented reality is applied in neurosurgery, which would be covered in the article "Augmented reality in neurosurgery".

- The addition of Jeri Ellsworth as a notable researcher of AR technology, with her history at valve and founding of CastAR. This would include the following cited article.

Sources for both the second and third goals mentioned above were found using MCC's library database.

The difference between Virtual Reality & Augmented Reality
In Virtual Reality (VR), the users' perception of reality is completely based on virtual information. In Augmented Reality (AR) the user is provided with additional computer generated information that enhances their perception of reality. For example, in architecture, VR can be used to create a walk-through simulation of the inside of a new building; and AR can be used to show a building's structures and systems super-imposed on a real-life view. Another example is through the use of utility applications. Some AR applications, such as Augment, enable users to apply digital objects into real environments, allowing businesses to use augmented reality devices as a way to preview their products in the real world. Similarly, it can also be used to demo what products may look like in an environment for customers, as demonstrated by companies such as Mountain Equipment Co-op or Lowe's who use augmented reality to allow customers to preview what their products might look like at home through the use of 3D models.

Augmented Reality (AR) differs from Virtual Reality (VR) in the sense that in AR part of the surrounding environment is actually 'real' and just adding layers of virtual objects to the real environment. On the other hand, in VR the surrounding environment is completely virtual. A demonstration of how AR layers objects onto the real world can be seen with augmented reality games. WallaMe is an augmented reality game application that allows users to hide messages in real environments, utilizing geolocation technology in order to enable users to hide messages wherever they may wish in the world. Such applications have many uses in the world, including in activism and artistic expression.

Healthcare planning, practice and education
One the first applications of Augmented Reality was in healthcare, particularly to support the planning, practice, and training of surgical procedures. As far back as 1992, enhancing human performance during surgery was a formally stated objective when building the first augmented reality systems at U.S. Air Force laboratories. Since 2005, a device called a near-infrared vein finder that films subcutaneous veins, processes and projects the image of the veins onto the skin has been used to locate veins. AR provides surgeons with patient monitoring data in the style of a fighter pilot's heads-up display, and allows patient imaging records, including functional videos, to be accessed and overlaid. Examples include a virtual X-ray view based on prior tomography or on real-time images from ultrasound and confocal microscopy probes, visualizing the position of a tumor in the video of an endoscope, or radiation exposure risks from X-ray imaging devices. AR can enhance viewing a fetus inside a mother's womb. Siemens, Karl Storz and IRCAD have developed a system for laparoscopic liver surgery that uses AR to view sub-surface tumors and vessels. AR has been used for cockroach phobia treatment. Patients wearing augmented reality glasses can be reminded to take medications. Augmented reality can be very helpful in the medical field. It could be used to provide crucial information to a doctor or surgeon without having them take their eyes off the patient. On 30 April 2015 Microsoft announced the Microsoft HoloLens, their first attempt at augmented reality. The HoloLens has advanced through the years and is capable of projecting holograms for near infrared fluorescence based image guided surgery. As augmented reality advances, it finds increasing applications in healthcare. Augmented reality and similar computer based-utilities are being used to train medical professionals. In healthcare, AR can be used to provide guidance during diagnostic and therapeutic interventions e.g. during surgery. Magee et al. for instance describe the use of augmented reality for medical training in simulating ultrasound guided needle placement. A very recent study by Akçayır, Akçayır, Pektaş, and Ocak (2016) revealed that AR technology both improves university students' laboratory skills and helps them to build positive attitudes relating to physics laboratory work. Recently, augmented reality has began seeing adoption in neurosurgery, a field that requires heavy amounts of imaging before procedures.

Notable researchers

 * Ivan Sutherland invented the first VR head-mounted display at Harvard University.
 * Steve Mann formulated an earlier concept of mediated reality in the 1970s and 1980s, using cameras, processors, and display systems to modify visual reality to help people see better (dynamic range management), building computerized welding helmets, as well as "augmediated reality" vision systems for use in everyday life. He is also an adviser to Meta.
 * Louis Rosenberg developed one of the first known AR systems, called Virtual Fixtures, while working at the U.S. Air Force Armstrong Labs in 1991, and published the first study of how an AR system can enhance human performance. Rosenberg's subsequent work at Stanford University in the early 90s, was the first proof that virtual overlays when registered and presented over a user's direct view of the real physical world, could significantly enhance human performance.
 * Mike Abernathy pioneered one of the first successful augmented video overlays (also called hybrid synthetic vision) using map data for space debris in 1993, while at Rockwell International. He co-founded Rapid Imaging Software, Inc. and was the primary author of the LandForm system in 1995, and the SmartCam3D system. LandForm augmented reality was successfully flight tested in 1999 aboard a helicopter and SmartCam3D was used to fly the NASA X-38 from 1999–2002. He and NASA colleague Francisco Delgado received the National Defense Industries Association Top5 awards in 2004.
 * Steven Feiner, Professor at Columbia University, is the author of a 1993 paper on an AR system prototype, KARMA (the Knowledge-based Augmented Reality Maintenance Assistant), along with Blair MacIntyre and Doree Seligmann. He is also an advisor to Meta.
 * Tracy McSheery, of Phasespace, developer in 2009 of wide field of view AR lenses as used in Meta 2 and others.
 * S. Ravela, B. Draper, J. Lim and A. Hanson developed a marker/fixture-less augmented reality system with computer vision in 1994. They augmented an engine block observed from a single video camera with annotations for repair. They use model-based pose estimation, aspect graphs and visual feature tracking to dynamically register model with the observed video.
 * Francisco Delgado is a NASA engineer and project manager specializing in human interface research and development. Starting 1998 he conducted research into displays that combined video with synthetic vision systems (called hybrid synthetic vision at the time) that we recognize today as augmented reality systems for the control of aircraft and spacecraft. In 1999 he and colleague Mike Abernathy flight-tested the LandForm system aboard a US Army helicopter. Delgado oversaw integration of the LandForm and SmartCam3D systems into the X-38 Crew Return Vehicle. In 2001, Aviation Week reported NASA astronaut's successful use of hybrid synthetic vision (augmented reality) to fly the X-38 during a flight test at Dryden Flight Research Center. The technology was used in all subsequent flights of the X-38. Delgado was co-recipient of the National Defense Industries Association 2004 Top 5 software of the year award for SmartCam3D.
 * Bruce H. Thomas and Wayne Piekarski developed the Tinmith system in 1998. They along with Steve Feiner with his MARS system pioneer outdoor augmented reality.
 * Mark Billinghurst is Director of the HIT Lab New Zealand (HIT Lab NZ) at the University of Canterbury in New Zealand and a notable AR researcher. He has produced over 250 technical publications and presented demonstrations and courses at a wide variety of conferences.
 * Reinhold Behringer performed important early work (1998) in image registration for augmented reality, and prototype wearable testbeds for augmented reality. He also co-organized the First IEEE International Symposium on Augmented Reality in 1998 (IWAR'98), and co-edited one of the first books on augmented reality.
 * Felix G. Hamza-Lup, Larry Davis and Jannick Rolland developed the 3D ARC display with optical see-through head-warned display for AR visualization in 2002.
 * Dieter Schmalstieg and Daniel Wagner developed a marker tracking systems for mobile phones and PDAs in 2009.
 * Jeri Ellsworth headed a research effort for the Valve Corporation on augmented reality (AR), later taking that research to her own start-up CastAR. The company, founded in 2013, eventually shuttered. Later, she created another start-up based off of the same technology called Tilt Five; another AR start-up formed by her with the purpose of creating a device for digital board games.
 * John Tinnell, Associate Professor at University of Denver, is the author of Actionable Media: Digital Communication Beyond the Desktop (2018) and the co-editor (with Sean Morey, Associate Professor at University of Tennessee-Knoxville) of Augmented Reality: Innovative Perspectives Across Art, Industry, and Academia (2017). Both works explore the applications of AR technology to humanities-based disciplines such as visual art, history, and public/professional writing.