A survey on augmented maps and environments: approaches, interactions and applications

With the advent of ubiquitous computing infrastructures, Augmented Reality (AR) interfaces are evolving in various application domains. Classically, AR provides a set of methods to enhance the real environment with registered virtual information overlays, which has promising applications in the domains of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and mobile mapping services. AR interfaces have a very close relation to GIScience and geo- visualization, most notably in that AR systems deal with large volumes of inherently spatial data. The development of scalable AR systems therefore draws on many infrastructures and algorithms from GIScience (e.g. efficient management and retrieval of spatial data, precise positioning). Moreover, the use of AR as a user interface paradigm has great potential for novel geospatial applications: most importantly, AR provides intuitive mechanisms for inter- action with spatial data and bridges the gap between the real environment and abstracted map representations. We overview the state-of-the-art on augmented maps and categorize applications using augmented maps. In addition we intend to outline current developments and future trends of augmented reality interfaces over the next decade.