Abstract

The fields of Wearable Computing, Augmented Reality and Ubiquitous Computing are in principle highly convergent, as they all focus on environments where users perceive, and intuitively interact with, their surroundings. However, the reality as practised in research labs and limited commercial deployments has been that budgetary and technical constraints have actually kept these fields separate and distinct. One manifestation of this separation is in the choice of sensors used to build systems in each domain. A truly cross-disciplinary project has to incorporate sensors of much greater heterogeneity than has occurred heretofore. The way in which sensors are deployed results in spatial seams that can act as obstacles to the provision of services across different areas. This paper takes an architectural approach to handling events from different tracking systems, maintaining a consistent spatial model of people and objects, according to the needs expressed by clients and the constraints imposed by the system.