Recently, the capabilities of real-time PC-based video image processing and computer graphic systems converged to make possible
the display of a virtual graphical image correctly registered with a view of the 3D environment of the user’s object of interest.
The generation of an Augment Reality scene can now be done with a PC computer graphics system. An Augmented Reality (AR) system
generates a composite view for the user. It is a combination of the real scene viewed by the user and a virtual scene generated
by the computer (a 3D model) that augments the scene with additional information. Fig. 1 displays one possible AR scene where
a phantom is overlaid with graphics models of tumors. One of the most important issues to consider for a very accurate AR
application is the method for tracking the various elements of the environment such as the video camera.
This work is partially funded by NASA grant 99-HEDS-01-079