Mobile Augmented Reality fuer Touristen (MARFT)

The aim of the project MARFT is to demonstrate the next generation of augmented reality targeting current mass market mobile phones. MARFT sets out to launch an interactive service for tourists visiting mountainous rural regions. During local trips they will be able to explore the surrounding landscape by pointing the lens of the smart-phone camera towards the area of interest. As soon as the view-finder shows the area of interest, the tourist will be able to choose between two products: (i) an augmented photo superimposed with tourist information like hiking tours or lookout points or (ii) a rendered 3D virtual reality view showing the same view as the real photo also augmented with tourist objects. The outstanding step beyond current augmented reality applications is that MARFT is able to augment the reality with cartographic accuracy. In addition to the benefit of presenting reliable information, MARFT is able to consider the visibility of objects and further to work completely offline in order to avoid roaming costs especially for tourists visiting from abroad.