Overview
   The Mobile Augmented Reality Applications project explores utilizing camera equipped mobile devices as platforms for sensor-based, video see-through mobile augmented reality. The project also investigates new and exciting applications enabled by this technology, and UI solutions and paradigms motivated by the restrictions of the mobile devices.

      How it works
If the absolute location and orientation of a camera is known, along with the properties of the lens, it is possible to determine exactly what parts of the scene are viewed by the camera.
The MARA prototype application uses accelerometers in all three axes to determine orientation, a tilt compensated compass for heading, and GPS for positioning.
Since these sensors give the (approximate) location and orientation, it is possible to annotate the viewfinder screen with information about real world objects, once the device is focusing on those objects.

      Hardware

This is the hardware the demonstration videos were recorded with - a Nokia 6680 mobile device with an add-on box containing GPS and sensors.

      Implementation and Prototyping
Our prototype application overlays the continuous viewfinder image stream captured by the camera with graphics and text in real time, annotating the user's surroundings. The prototype consists of Nokia S60 platform phone and attached external sensor box providing position and orientation information to the phone via a Bluetooth connection.