tekom-Jahrestagung 2012 - ActiveDoc

Mobile Dokumentation / Mobile Documentation
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Display to show captured and overlaid (augmented) content, such as a
smartphone, tablet, goggles, or head-mounted display.
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Component(s) to interact with AR application – touch screen or microphone
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The augmented content (3D data, 2D data, text, audio)
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Application to feed content to AR client application
How can Augmented Reality be used for technical documentation?
The above mentioned AMAR project at Columbia University had implemented
a prototype to allow a service technician to execute a repair
guided by augmented information. The technician sees the real world
and additional content through his goggles. This additional content
helps him to find the right position, to use the correct tools and execute
the necessary steps in the right order without being distracted by
consuming and interpreting “classical” technical documentation. Many
variations with other display devices have been built but they all follow
more or less the same basic concept.
Advantages of Augmented Reality
Using Augmented Reality eliminates the need to transfer written content
to the location where it needs to be applied. In a classical environment
a technician or owner typically flips through pages (paper or Web)
to identify the relevant information. This information then needs to be
transferred to the place where the task (repair, operation, etc.) has to be
executed. This requires the technician to interpret the written content
and align existing graphics with the physical object.
In an Augmented Reality world this transformation (and search) step is
not necessary because the information is already displayed at the place
where it is needed. It is information at the point and place of need. It
can even adjust to the current context: a technician can start by himself
and request support from an Augmented Reality application when he
cannot continue based on his own knowledge.
What does this mean for a technical author?
The most important part of an Augmented Reality solution, beside the
software component, is the content used for augmentation. This content
is what a technical author has to produce in the future. He needs to
work in a 3D view of the main object and place the content for augmentation.
The textual part will to a fair degree be replaced by 3D objects
showing activities, tools, parts, etc. New authoring tools for those tasks
are needed and require a different skillset – graphic oriented thinking,
focused on “real” task execution instead of abstract description, aiming
to minimize/eliminate the non-graphical information. It is not enough
to use a new tool; it requires us to change the mental approach of how
to “interact” with the consumers of technical documentation: in an Augmented
Reality world you don’t explain, you SHOW.
What has changed since the original question has been asked?
During the last three years the technology to enable augmented reality
has changed dramatically. All modern smartphones have the required
sensors and display capability already built in. Tablets offer the same
set of functionality and provide a larger area for interaction. Voice
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