Virtual Vouchers: Prototyping a Mobile Augmented Reality User Interface for Botanical Species Identification

White, S., Feiner, S., Kopylec, J. Virtual Vouchers: Prototyping a mobile augmented reality user interface for botanical species identification. 2006. Proc. 3DUI 2006 (IEEE Symp. on 3D User Interfaces), Alexandria, VA, March 25–26.

As biodiversity research increases in importance and complexity, the tools that botanists require for field-work must evolve and take on new forms. Of particular importance is the ability to identify existing and new species in the field. Mobile augmented reality systems can make it possible to access, view, and inspect a large database of virtual species examples side-by-side with physical specimens. In this paper, we present prototypes of a mobile augmented reality electronic field guide and techniques for displaying and inspecting computer vision-based visual search results in the form of virtual vouchers. Our work addresses head-movement controlled augmented reality for hands-free interaction and tangible augmented reality. We describe results from our design and investigation process and discuss observations and feedback from lab trials by botanists.

DivX encoded video (38 MB)

3DUI pdf with color plates (2 MB)

Additional References

White, S., Marino, D., Feiner S. Designing a Mobile User Interface for Automated Species Identification. Proceedings of ACM CHI 2007, San Jose, CA, April 28-May 3, 2007, 291–294. pdf

White, S., Marino, D., Feiner S. LeafView: A User Interface for Automated Botanical Species Identification and Data Collection. ACM UIST 2006 Conference Companion , Montreux, Switzerland, October 15-18, 2006. abstract poster

White, S., Feiner, S. Augmented Reality User Interfaces to an Electronic Field Guide. IEEE and ACM ISMAR 2006 CD ROM, Santa Barbara, CA, October 22-25, 2006. pdf

Smithsonian Exhibit. Science Pavilion. July 2006.

Agarwal, G., Belhumeur, P., Feiner, S., Jacobs, D., Kress, W.J., Ramamoorthi, R., Bourg, N., Dixit, N., Ling, H., Mahajan, D.,Russell, R., Shirdhonkar, S., Sunkavalli, K., and White, S. First steps toward an electronic field guide for plants. To appear in Taxon, Journal of the International Association for Plant Taxonomy. pdf

This project is part of a collaborative research project to develop an electronic field guide with the Smithsonian and UMD. More information on that project can be found here or you can contact swhite [at] cs.columbia.edu

This material is based in part upon work supported by National Science Foundation Grant IIS-03-25867. Any opinions, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official views, opinions, or policy of the National Science Foundation (NSF).