Augmented reality for support decision on solar radiation harnessing

The use of mobile devices, such as smartphones and tablets, is widespread nowadays because they are portable, affordable, and offer a diversity of features. This type of equipment supports Augmented Reality (AR) applications, since they have all the necessary characteristics: good processing power, are equipped with cameras, sensors, such as accelerometers, magnetometers and gyroscopes, provide geo-location system and Web-connectivity. Having AR applications in this type of devices makes them available to a large audience. In particular, mobile AR applications can help disseminating the use of renewable energy, providing mechanisms to calculate the potential gains of its use. These applications can also be a valuable tool for technicians and researchers in this field. In the case of solar energy, the installation of photovoltaic modules is no longer limited to roofs, because there is specific equipment to install in walls or windows, surfaces that are suitable for presenting information in AR. Extending previous work on data visualization of solar radiation in RA, this article presents an application to simulate the installation of a photovoltaic module on the walls of a building. The user can control the module position on the wall by dragging its icon on the screen. When the module position is chosen, the application provides information about the amount of produced energy which, obviously, depends on the module position on the wall. A user study conducted with volunteers revealed a positive overall assessment of the application.