An Empirical Study on Augmented Virtuality Space for Tele-Inspection of Built Environments

This paper describes an empirical study on an augmented virtuality (AV)-based system dedicated for tele-inspection of built environments. This system is regarded as a solution that allows users to experience the real remote built environment without the need of physically stepping into that actual place. Such experience is realized by using AV technology to enrich the virtual counterparts of the place with captured real images from the real space. Those integrated into the AV environment are real photos that represent key landmarks/features of the real place, live video streams of on-site crew, and 3D virtual design geometries. The focus of this paper is the implementation and evaluation of the AV system in its current state as compared with traditional photo-based methods. Results from this preliminary empirical study show that the AV system achieves good overall satisfaction, although it involves certain general usability issues.