This paper describes Studierstube, an augmented reality system developed over the past four years at Vienna University of Technology, Austria, in extensive collaboration with Fraunhofer CRCG, Inc. in Providence, Rhode Island, U.S. Our starting point for developing the Studierstube system was the belief that augmented reality, the less obtrusive cousin of virtual reality, has a better chance of becoming a viable user interface for applications requiring manipulation of complex threedimensional information as a daily routine. In essence, we are searching for a 3D user interface metaphor as powerful as the desktop metaphor for 2D. At the heart of the Studierstube system, collaborative augmented reality is used to embed computer-generated images into the real work environment. In the first part of this paper, we review the user interface of the initial Studierstube system, in particular the implementation of collaborative augmented reality, and the Personal Interaction Panel, a two-handed...
Dieter Schmalstieg, Anton L. Fuhrmann, Gerd Hesina