Technology

   High-Speed & Robust NFT

   Natural Feature Tracking

   Marker-based Tracking

   Incremental Tracking

 

Software Libraries

   Studierstube ES

   Studierstube Tracker

   Muddleware

 

Projects

   Augmenting Business Cards

   Cows vs. Aliens

   MARQ

   Older Projects

 

More

   Media/Press

   Team

   Publications

   Collaborations

   Student projects

   FAQ

 

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The Handheld Augmented Reality
Project is supported by the
following institutions:

 

 

 

 

 

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We support a
Software Patent Free Europe.

 

Studierstube ES

Our all new software framework Studierstube ES is a second general handheld AR platform. Written from scratch in mid of 2006 it represents a radical new way of doing Augmented Reality (AR) on handheld devices. Other than previous attempts it makes no compromises by using software that was primarily written for other platforms. Studierstube ES was designed from ground up to make best use of the handheld platforms.

Studierstube ES operates cross-platform (Windows, Windows CE and Symbian) and addresses graphics, video, tracking, multimedia, persistent storage, multi-user synchronisation and application authoring tools.

It offers the richest feature set and highest performance for developing Augmented Reality applications on handheld devices at the commercial market as well as in academia. It is based on over ten years of development of AR software and five years of specialization on handheld devices. As a result, Studierstube ES offers some unique features that enable handheld devices to run AR applications that were previously deemed impossible. It allows targeting a wide variety of devices (Windows CE and Symbian, with and without embedded 3D graphics acceleration) and has a convenient high-level API with cross-platform emulation capabilities.

 

Networking

Other than traditional stationary AR systems, mobile handheld devices give the unique possibility to allow thousands of user to share their Augmented Reality experience. For setups such as multi-user games or collaborative applications, a powerful client software is not enough: A strong and prototyping capable networking middleware is needed that allow connecting those clients. Studierstube ES is includes networking extensions that make it easy to create shared applications and games. While it can run standalone, the true power of handheld Augmented Reality becomes available when combining it with its server-side counterparts.

Highlights of the Client Software

• Supports
  • Windows CE (major target platform)
  • Linux (target and development platform)
  • Symbian (experimental target platform)
  • Windows 2k/XP (development platform)
• Highly configurable to optimally use available hardware
• Highly optimized fixed-point math classes
• Small memory footprint (~500KB minimum for a useable system)
• Support for OpenGL ES 1.x, OpenGL ES 2.x, OpenGL, and Direct3D Mobile
• Dedicated render paths for software and hardware 3D accelerated devices
• Lightweight XML-based scene graph for rapid application development
• Integration of Studierstube Tracker
• Content protection, binds Studierstube ES to a specific device and protectes against reading or modifying the content outside the application

Applications built with Studierstube ES

Studierstube ES has been the basis for several projects:

• Cows vs. Aliens, a networked, multi-player game
• Signpost2007, the location aware conference guide
• Vidente, city sub-surface data visualization
• Sphinx, a game engine for creating Augmented Reality museum adventure games
• Invisible Train 2007, a remake of the well known Invisible Train of 2003
• Various commercial projects...

 

website maintained by Daniel Wagner
last updated on 2008-12-01

News

 

Augmenting Business Cards

A short description plus video how to augment business cards using Studierstube Tracker can be found here.

 

High-Speed and Robust Natural Feature Tracking on Mobile Phones

We are proud to announce a new milestone in natural feature tracking on mobile phones. <More...>

 

The Handheld AR Project starts a Christian Doppler Lab

We are proud to announce that the Handheld Augmented Reality group at Graz University of Technology was chosen to be funded as a Christian Doppler Lab.

 

Microsoft’s Incredible Machine wins National Multimedia Awards 2008

The game "Microsoft’s Incredible Machine" won the Austrian National Multimedia Award in the category "Culture, Entertainment and Games". The game was developed by our partner Imagination Computer Services and is based on Studierstube technology.

 

MARQ nominated for National Multimedia Awards 2008 (Category Learning, Information and Journalism)

The Museum Augmented Reality Quest project was nominated (among top three of all submissions) for the category "Category Learning, Information and Journalism" of the Austrian National Multimedia Awards 2008. MARQ was created as a joint work of Graz University of Technology, Imagination Computer Services and Kärntner Landes Museum.

 

Best Paper Award at ISMAR 2008

Our paper on Pose Tracking from Natural Features on Mobile Phones has won the best paper award at ISMAR 2008. Pictures of the award are here and here.