Combining Indoor and Outdoor Positioning for Navigation in AR Environments

This article presents a comparative analysis of AR technologies: Vuforia, Immerse, Multiset, and Geospatial API, in terms of performance, accuracy, and interference tolerance in indoor and outdoor positioning and navigation systems. Two test environments were performed: one was an indoor (laboratory) environment enabling detailed module testing, and the other was a hybrid environment implemented on the CUT campus to illustrate the feasibility of implementing virtual presence in AR and navigation in diverse environmental conditions. The research was conducted according to six scenarios. One involved outdoor GPS navigation, while the others concerned indoor navigation. Based on the research, recommendations were made for the use of the considered AR environments for mixed navigation. As a part of the detailed testing, an AR navigation system was implemented on the CUT campus as a combination of indoor and outdoor approaches. The final implementation was developed in the Unity environment. Software tests were carried out with particular emphasis on transitions between internal and external navigation.