Augmented Earth: Towards Ubiquitous AR Messaging

Present augmented reality systems are isolated islands with no or little capability to receive 3D information from the outside world. In this paper we describe how Google Earth can be used to transform the physical world into an AR mailbox. We demonstrate a system where a mobile phone AR environment can be defined and advertised by a portal, using a simple visual/tangible approach. The focus has been on the ease of use. The current limitations are tracking stability and lack of high quality Google Earth content.