A Framework for Collaborative Augmented Reality Applications

Brockmann Tobias, Krüger Nina, Stieglitz Stefan, Bohlsen Immo

Abstract
In recent years, augmented reality applications became more popular due to a more user-friendly design and technical improvements. Currently, augmented reality applications start to play a growing role for communication and collaboration. Some researchers classified and structured augmented reality applications in different domains, but an overall classification scheme is still missing. Additional to this gap, new augmented reality (AR) applications and features came up, so that existing taxonomies do not cover all relevant aspects anymore. The aim of this article is to provide a classification framework for collaborative AR-applications based on literature analysis of the latest research regarding collaboration and AR-applications and as well related disciplines. In this paper we present an approach to analyze related taxonomies. Based on that, we propose a new taxonomy which covers relevant aspects of current AR-applications and consists of the dimensions space, time, mobility, virtual content, role concept, and visualization hardware. Following this, we compare our framework to existing taxonomies and we discuss academic and practical implications.

Keywords
Augmented reality; information richness; taxonomy; collaborative; applications