Intelligent switch: An algorithm to provide the best third-person perspective in augmented reality

Augmented reality (AR) environments are suffering from a limited workspace. In addition, registration issues are also increased by the use of a mobile camera on the user that provides a first-person perspective (1PP). Using several fixed cameras reduces the registration issues and, depending on their location, the workspace could also be enlarged. In this case of an extended workspace, it has been shown that third-person perspective (3PP) is sometimes preferred by the user. Based on the previous hypotheses, we developed a system working with several fixed cameras that can provide 3PP to a user wearing a video see-through HMD. Our system uses an "intelligent switch" to propose our "best view" to the user, i.e. avoiding markers occlusion and taking into account user displacements. We present in this paper, such a system, its decision algorithm, and the discussion of obtained results that seem to be very promising within the AR domain.