The basic way of human-computer interaction (HCI), the graphical user interface (GUI), has emerged 28 years ago and its main idea remains since then unchanged. The user is isolated from the “real world”: his hands are attached to the mouse and the keyboard, while his eyes are glued to a large screen.
The domain of human-computer interaction needs thus a completely new approach. This new approach could supplement the user’s feelings and point of view, presenting him in real time the needed information right where it belongs: attached to the real world. This way of combining the real and the virtual world is called Augmented Reality (AR).

The basic question that emerges is how the computer receives user input in a novel, subtle way and where should the information be presented.

This thesis comes up with the following solution:

Special 2D barcodes, called visual markers are created with a simple printer. Every marker, which contains a unique ID, is attached to an object of the real world, playing thus the role of a phycon (physical icon). This implementation of “the internet of things” enables the user to receive digital information about his surroundings with a “point ‘n shoot” approach, using just a computer with a camera (or ideally a camera phone).

The following tools have been implemented towards the above mentioned approach:

• An application for marker creation

• An adaptive algorithm able to scan the environment, efficiently detect the markers attached to it and decode their unique ID. Moreover, it provides the right “tools” to access every kind of digital information relevant to each marker or to render 3D models that appear attached to them.