A systematic review of application development in augmented reality navigation research

ABSTRACT

Augmented Reality (AR) is a technology that has been used extensively in the field of cartography, with one particular application being that of navigation. However even now, AR in navigation is still at an active exploratory stage with multiple different approaches regarding the techniques, methodologies, and development processes. In this work, we present a systematic review of application development in AR navigation research, aiming to fill the gap in the literature by identifying trends in aspects such as hardware, software, and methodologies in AR navigation. We review 107 publications from the past 25 years that present AR navigation software for real-world environments, and analyze their main characteristics regarding intended environments and users, hardware, development platforms, and AR methodologies. We note a rise in AR navigation research interest from 2010 onward, driven in large part by smartphone and mobile device ubiquity, supported further by significant advances and streamlined processes in AR application development. Furthermore, we highlight a rise in the use of increasingly more complex AR methodologies in recent years, signaling that the field is steadily evolving and maturing. At the same time, we also identify significant inconsistencies and omissions regarding the reporting of technical details, with nearly half of reviewed works not reporting one or more of the aspects of interest. After identifying the level of maturity and complexity in the field AR navigation, we provide a list of recommendations and future directions for researchers aiming to develop AR navigation applications.

KEYWORDS:

• Augmented reality
• mixed reality
• navigation
• path-finding
• wayfinding
• systematic review

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

The data that support the findings of this study are openly available in figshare at https://figshare.com/s/eb99e909ec7c6d235805.

Notes

1. This is the case with most commercially available smartphones and handheld GPS devices, e.g. as used in navigation, whereas industrial applications can have sub-meter or centimeter accuracy.

2. “Wayfinding” refers to the general process of determining one’s position, and planning and following a route to a destination, “Pathfinding” nowadays is often related to calculating an optimal path between two points in a network, often found in computer science, and “Navigation” refers more to the particular process of following a path through an environment.

3. For the purposes of this review, we will be using the terms “navigation,” “wayfinding,” and “pathfinding” interchangeably. Furthermore, we will be considering MR as a subset of AR.

4. The general query with operator keywords was of the form: (“mixed reality” OR “augmented reality”) AND (“navigat*” OR “pathfind*” OR “wayfind*”), adapted to each library’s query syntax. Wildcards (*) were used to return similar words, e.g. “navigat*” returned matches for both “navigation” and “navigating.”

5. https://developer.android.com/.

6. https://developer.apple.com/ios/.

7. https://developer.vuforia.com/.

8. now defunct.

9. https://unity.com/.

10. https://processing.org/.

11. It is important to note here that the entries list for the year 2021 may not be complete, as works published in late 2021 may not have been indexed yet in the online library databases, and therefore not included in this review work.

12. For example Android Studio and the Android SDK facilitate application development for Android devices, while the iOS SDK facilitates application development for iOS devices (e.g. iPhone/iPad).

13. For example Unity’s AR Foundation library allows developers to deploy their application to Android, iOS, and HoloLens devices simultaneously.

Additional information

Funding

The research project was supported by the Hellenic Foundation for Research and Innovation (H.F.R.I.) (https://www.elidek.gr/en/) under the “First Call for H.F.R.I. Research Projects to support Faculty members and Researchers and the procurement of high-cost research equipment” [Project Number: HFRI-FM17-2661].This research was partially supported by the project that has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme under Grant Agreement No 739578 and the Government of the Republic of Cyprus through the Deputy Ministry of Research, Innovation and Digital Policy.