IntGuide: A platform for context-aware services featuring augmented-reality, based on the outcome of European Research Projects

As people become increasingly acquainted with information technology, they demand Continuous availability of services related to their work or leisure. The era of ubiquitous Computing announced long ago is currently turning into an everyday reality at an ever-increasing pace. Alongside the evolution of ubiquitous and nomadic computing, the need of people to access vast amounts of information in a comprehensive and efficient way gives rise to the areas of information visualization and augmented-reality. Such technologies allow for the comprehensive presentation of visual information equally addressing the needs of different categories of people. In the past 5 years, we have been active in a set of European Research Projects addressing the above-mentioned research directions, with the long-term goal to develop a software platform, that will enable context-aware services deploying advanced visualization technology in a series of application domains, such as cultural heritage dissemination, interactive television and retail industry. The multitude of the application domains addressed, as well as the multidisciplinary expertise necessary to create a generic platform was successfully addressed in complementary research activities. In this paper, we present the idea of a platform for context-aware services by exploiting advanced visualization technology and subsequently we briefly review the research projects that delivered valuable pieces in the overall puzzle. Emphasis is Put on the practical issues of the implementation and deployment in different application scenarios. (c) 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.