DARE - Directional Augmented REality

Augmented Reality (AR) technologies for eye-wear and head-mounted devices currently require large form factors, weight, cost as well as more frequent recharging cycles that reduce usability. This comes as no surprise since connectivity, image capture & processing, localization, orientation, and direction lead to high processing and power requirements.
A multi-antenna system, patented by the industrial partner, enables a new generation of smart eye-wear that elegantly requires less hardware, connectivity, and power to provide AR functionalities. They will allow users to locate nearby radio emitting sources that highlight objects of interest (including people or retail items). This solution, is supported by existing standards like Bluetooth Low Energy, Apple’s iBeacon and Google’s Eddystone. It also fosters dynamic scenarios for people interaction.
This project aims at developing embedded technology for low-cost, low-form factor, low-power equipment to be unobtrusively integrated into traditional glasses. The research methodology will follow two paths. On one side, an actual prototype will be built by using hardware components off-the-shelf. On the other side, a complete simulation platform will be created to reproduce the behavior of the final glasses.
To this purpose, the University of Verona will develop the first simulation tool that jointly models digital hardware, analog hardware, radio propagation and network communication without resorting to co-simulation among different tools.
The simulation platform will be used 1) for design space exploration (e.g., find the optimal hardware platform, choose communication protocols, optimize radio frequency circuitry) to propose a ready-to-build configuration and 2) to integrate the actual prototype with models of the under-development components by using a “model-in-the-loop” approach to provide an attractive demonstrator for possible investors.