Overview
Augmented and Virtual Reality (AR/VR) have been around for more than 30 years. These technologies found their initial applications in the military aircraft arena, with Pilot Head-Mounted Displays, flight simulations and later in entertainment and industry. However, it was only recently that these technologies have found their way into the commercial world mostly due to advances in mobile processing, new specialized AR-chipsets, reduced development cost, the ubiquity of wireless broadband connections, and new algorithmic developments in computer vision.
VR is more mature than existing AR technology and it has already showed some effective industry use-cases as well, from training (e.g. astronaut training, flight simulators), gaming and real estate applications to tourism, while mobile-driven AR effects such as virtual try-on of makeup, face masks or games such as Pokemon Go are the first validation of consumer AR use. Although AR is less mature than VR due to technology limitations, lack of standardization and a higher price tag, it is expected to be game-changer technology in areas like manufacturing, healthcare and logistics in the next few years once the technological limitations of the traditional headsets are resolved.
Both AR and VR technologies are expected to reach a mainstream adoption, comparable to the adoption of smartphones (one third of American households have three or more smartphones). In order to make this possible, Computer Vision plays a fundamental role in AR/VR systems to see, analyze and understand the world.
Computer vision is vital for AR/VR growth, and while there are several conferences specialized in the topic, little attention has been played in the Computer Vision community (i.e., CVPR, ECCV, ICCV). The aim of this workshop is to bring industry innovators and academic leaders in the AR/VR world to discuss the problems, applications and in general the state of the AR/VR systems.