Mobile augmented reality (AR) applications represent a profound opportunity for
increased access to print and digital library collections. AR applications can deliver an engaging and interactive information experience. Applications that overlay graphical
data are well suited for in-library engagement as well as off site real world interaction with library content.
These applications bring about a greater melding between the physical and digital
environment. This interconnection is a desired feature in our era as many library
resources exist digitally and many libraries maintain large legacy print collections and
continue to offer access to both. In previous papers on location-based services using
mobile applications (Hahn, 2011, p. 672) it has been asserted that location-based
information causes a library collection to modulate dynamically, in real-time based on
users needs and interests, incorporating the library's digital content and the web. What
this article now adds to the literature of digital library location based services is the
interactive combination of real and virtual with graphical overlays.
Azuma (1997, p. 2) writes that augmented reality systems "have the following three
characteristics: 1) Combines real and virtual, 2) Interactive in real time, 3) Registered in
3-D".
In order to be considered a truly augmented reality application, an app must
interactively attach graphics or data to objects in real time, to achieve the real and
virtual combination of graphics into the physical environment:
An AR system supplements the real world with virtual (computer-generated) objects that
appear to coexist in the same space aS the real world. AR can potentially apply to all sense,
including hearing, touch, and smell (Azuma et al, 2001, p. 34).