**8. Conclusion**

In summary, our Plenum A La Mode event constitutes a unique amalgam of different ideas and technologies that straddles the artistic, scientific and technological worlds. The technical challenges in terms of obtaining reliable recognition of the fabric belt patterns, tracking the belt over a complex set of manipulations and movements in real time, and visually integrating both the optical scene with virtual three-dimensional enhancements were considerable. Furthermore, the project required the close collaboration of several individuals with different areas of expertise to achieve the desired results, including the writer, event and fashion designer (Edwards), 3D graphics artist (Proulx Guimond), textile artist (Michaud) and programmer (Caron Roberge). Another colleague with expertise in the development of music is also working with us, Jocelyne Kiss.

Among the challenges addressed and overcome were the introduction of occlusions using the belt cylinder as a model, so as to create the illusion of virtual elements passing behind the model's body, the provision of stable and good lighting conditions to ensure robust target recognition, the use of uniform backgrounds so as to limit confusion for the recognition software, the use of a second camera feed so that the tracking could be carried out independently of the scene enhancement, and the introduction of persistence to enhance the stability of the visualization of the virtual elements and prevent loss of the recognition lock.

The final result of these efforts provides acceptable, but not perfect, real time augmented reality image enhancements. The virtual elements experience a small amount of jitter while the software tries to track the belt, and if the movement is too rapid, the model passes behind a visual obstacle, or simply moves too far from the camera, the recognition lock is lost and the virtual elements disappear until a new lock is acquired (generally by moving towards the camera and holding still). The public staging requires the use of a desktop computer of relatively strong power, loud-speakers and a webcam. Our expectation is to project the enhanced image onto a screen as the model parades along the runway. The belts are themselves esthetically interesting as well as serving as target patterns for the augmentation.

Ultimately, we believe that more complete full body augmentations could be achieved using several targets integrated into the garment design. These might include flat targets in some areas, such as across the chest or back, as well as additional cylindrical targets for, example, around the thighs and arms. The augmented images would need to be matched to each other and integrated visually into a seamless whole, which will pose many additional technical challenges to the ones we encountered. Details of the final fashion show event will be made available through the principal author's website at www.geoffreyjenedwards.com.

*Augmented Reality and Its Application*
