Development of an Inexpensive Augmented Reality (AR) Headset

Abstract

We outline our work in developing an Augmented Reality (AR) headset with low purchase and maintenance costs. Similar to Google Cardboard, the headset uses a smartphone to provide the compute power, connectivity and display. Unlike Google Cardboard, our headset does not block the user's view of the world and is therefore suitable for AR applications. The headset uses the Pepper's Ghost illusion to display images from the phone's screen via a transparent sheet located in front of the user's eyes. During a pilot study, we confirmed that the headset is effective in settings with low to medium levels of ambient illumination: in these conditions we demonstrated the effectiveness of using a mobile phone's standard screen brightness settings to present a range of photos, 3D images, short texts and shapes.