Augmented Reality Visualisation of the Built Environment To Support Design Decision Making

This paper reviews current approaches to design visualization in the built environment and establishes a gap in theory and practice. While it has been acknowledged for some time that the temporal component is an important aspect of visualisation there has been minimal attempts to integrate this approach into design practice. We articulate an approach to visualization which we term ‘temporal context’. This approach has two aspects: (1) the evaluation of designs in terms of spatial sequence and multiple viewpoints over time; (2) perceptual change over time due to changing light and atmospheric conditions. Building on our previous research in the use of video game technology to facilitate design, we evaluate the potential of augmented reality (AR) technology to address temporal context. We describe proposals for two innovative screen based AR systems, which incorporate a multi-camera capture mechanism, a video data base and a unique illumination data capture approach.