Research in AR needs to include both technical and human elements. Much of the research needs to involve interdisciplinary collaboration, between the disciplines of computer science (visualization, robotics, nanotechnology), engineering, applied psychology, education, environmental design.

Technical:

• Creating lighter, more efficient technologies for ease of use will require engineering and design research (ie better display devices)
• Enabling more accurate registration to allow for more better overlay or tie of synthetic information to real elements
• How to improve tracking? Improvements into RFID  (radio frequency identification) and higher resolution GPS (global positioning systems) technologies to enable more precise location information of user. How to create a tracker with fine enough detail to assist in laproscopic surgery?
• Image processing

Human:

• Studies into cognitive information load - how much information can be added to a view of reality, where we can still make sense of it? At what point does information overload occur?
• Spatial ability - can spatial ability be learned through augmented reality applications? (Dunser et al)
• the effect of age, gender and spatial ability on navigation and manipulation of an AR environment (Mathews et al)
• What are appropriate educational applications of AR technology? When, where and how should it be used in a K-12 or adult learning environment?
• What learning occurs with AR that is different than other means of representing large datasets?
• What are the differences in information extraction between traditional 2D representations of data and AR 3D models?
• What are the long-term psychological or social impacts of using AR in the workplace (ie clinics, schools, professional organizations? http://www.cs.unc.edu/Research/us/
• What is effective design for AR? (Mantovani, 2003)

Discussion Question: What questions do you have about research related to 

                    augmented reality or ideas for future research? Please provide your response in the 

                    discussion box below. 

As a next step in navigating this Wiki, we recommend reading the page "Potential Pitfalls of the Technology"