Augmented reality instruction for object assembly based on markerless tracking

Conventional object assembly instructions are usually written or illustrated in a paper manual. Users have to associate these static instructions with real objects in 3D space. In this paper, a novel augmented reality system is presented for a user to interact with objects and instructions. While most related methods pasted obvious markers onto objects for tracking and constrained their orientations or shapes, we adopt a markerless strategy for more intuitive interaction. Based on live information from an off-the-shelf RGBD camera, the proposed tracking procedure identifies components in a scene, tracks their 3D positions and orientations, and evaluates whether there are combinations of components. According to the detected events and poses, our indication procedure then dynamically displays indication lines, circular arrows and other hints to guide a user to manipulate the components into correct poses. The experiment shows that the proposed system can robustly track the components and respond intuitive instructions at an interactive rate. Most of users in evaluation are interested and willing to use this novel technique for object assembly.