ABSTRACT
This chapter presents a research that enables the user to join a networked virtual environment with a wearable computer. Different from the notebook computer, the wearable computer is the computer system that allows the user to operate it while moving. Consequently, the legacy keyboard and mouse are not feasible input devices for the wearable computer to interact with the networked virtual environment. To navigate the virtual world other positioning devices (such as the GPS receiver is often used as the outdoor positioning device) are required for the wearable computer user. However, the external positioning device will cause temporal and spatial synchronization issues between the wearable computing system and the conventional networked virtual reality (VR) system. This paper investigates these issues and presents solutions to them. The tips to implement such a system are also given. The study shows linking up the wearable computing system and network virtual environment as the augmented reality environment. The system supporting this environment is called a multiplayer mobile augmented reality (MiMAR) system. Finally, an ongoing 3-D virtual campus project is given at the end to demonstrate the result of this research.
