Augmented reality mobile information system for the obtaining detailed and non-intrusive information in large environments

Introduction: This article is the result of the augmented reality project “AR position U” for the effective visualization of information of interest dynamically through augmented reality, carried out in the year 2022 in the city of Popayan, capital of the department of Cauca. Problem: Problems have been identified regarding the location of spaces in very large places by people who have no knowledge of the site causing loss of time and frustration, to the point of being late to the desired location. This leads to the following problem question: What would be the impact of the implementation of an augmented reality application, whose purpose is to provide detailed information to people in a non-intrusive way in large environments? Objective: To propose a mobile information system that allows users to orient themselves and obtain detailed information in a dynamic and non-intrusive way in large environments through augmented reality. Methodology: The experimental methodology is used, since a series of tests were determined to reach the validation of the information system, in order to have a product that was articulated with the guide of good practices of project management and meets the needs of the population to which it could be directed. Results: As a result, the information system based on augmented reality was obtained, allowing for the easy location of spaces due to the usability of the product. Conclusion: Based on the experimental methodology, it is determined that, although augmented reality improves the detailed descriptions of large environments, it is very limited to the external conditions; however, the tool meets the proposed objectives. Originality: Augmented reality information system for orientation in large places and obtaining information in a non-intrusive way, under the PMBOK and XP methodology. Limitations: Due to complexity and time constraints, it is not possible to cover all faculties. On the other hand, 3D interface is only generated by QR tags. On the other hand, the correct functioning of the system can be affected by lighting factors, the distance of the user from the tag, the hardware and software capacity of the smartphone and the internet connection.

Augmented reality mobile information system for the obtaining detailed and nonintrusive information in large environments Resumen Introducción: Este artículo es resultado del proyecto de realidad aumentada "AR position U" para la visualización efectiva de información de interés de forma dinámica mediante realidad aumentada, llevado a cabo en el año 2022 en la ciudad de Popayán, capital del departamento del cauca.
Limitaciones: Debido a la complejidad y limitantes de tiempo, no es posible abarcar todas las facultades. Por otro lado, interfaz 3D solamente se genera mediante etiquetas QR. Por otro lado, el correcto funcionamiento del sistema se puede ver afectado por factores lumínicos, la distancia del usuario respecto a la etiqueta, la capacidad tanto de hardware como software del smartphone y la conexión a internet.

INTRODUCTION
Many years ago, augmented reality [1] was conceived as science fiction, but today it has scientific bases that support it, in addition to technological advances and the miniaturization of things, which has led to an increase in processing capacity within computer systems and a decrease in costs, which has made access to this technology possible. It is important to highlight the use that can be given to augmented reality, which is very varied: it has great potential in education, business, and the video game sectors, among others. Great benefits have been seen in using augmented reality both for different daily tasks as well as in the professional field. An example of this is the interaction with interfaces in the real world that allows architects or the final client to see the predesigned structures in the same place, giving a more approximate and effective idea of visualizing the final result. In this same sense, the use of this technology has a beneficial potential that, when implemented in large complexes such as: airports, educational campuses, factories, among others, will allow real-time visualizations to be issued, such as showing people where to go or providing virtual advertising of said place without damaging the real environment with visual noise.
Consequently, the need arises for an augmented reality tool that helps people find their way around large places, avoiding interference if necessary. For the development of this idea, an experimental methodology is used, where the effectiveness of the system is tested, which consists of a mobile information system that allows, through the use of a camera, to generate superimposed elements on the real world. Said element consists of a graphical interface that shows the information of an environment in a detailed and dynamic way, having the ability to interact with the user.
As a way of validation, this system was implemented under a controlled scenario in the University Institution to which it belongs, allowing students to organize their schedule and optimize their time, obtaining a better coexistence within the facilities.

RELATED WORKS
The search for similar jobs where Augmented Reality was implemented helped clarify the different environments in which it can be applied and the benefits they bring; as a reference, we have the following: Medellín -Colombia [2] looks to be at the forefront of technology and sustainability to offer a unique experience to tourists or nationals. This is done through the Smart Tourism Center, the first in the country, that through the Medellín Travel mobile application provides key information about different tourist places in the city and also has the option of augmented reality that allows you to view typical elements of the Paisa culture, old photographs and thus learn a little about its history.
Augmented reality as a didactic resource for the teaching and learning of historical heritage. The building of the mosaic of the loves of the archaeological complex of Cástulo (linares, jaén).
The archaeological discoveries that have been made in different parts of the world and are on display do not show enough information to convey what is displayed, even more so when the observer has no knowledge of archeology. In this way, by implementing augmented reality, it facilitates the visualization of information for the visitor and provides a 3D image of how it could have been in the past, generating unique experiences and helping the visitor understand the history that it brings with it [3].

Augmented reality mobile application for the location of the classrooms in the Porvenir Campus of the University of the Amazon.
Being able to locate the classrooms within an educational complex in the first days of class at the beginning of the semester is complicated as a new student, which has the negative effect of being late to the classrooms, entering classrooms by mistake or simply causing interruptions in the development of the work. At the University of the Amazon, a mobile application (SARA) that uses augmented reality offers an alternative for being able to discover the different environments that the Future Campus of the entity contains, thus guiding the student in a more effective and timely manner [4].

Campus Guide using Augmented Reality Techniques
The purpose of the application is to allow students and teachers to obtain information on: • Classrooms: Know if it is available or not, if it has an internet connection.
• Administrative offices: Office hours, contact information to facilitate communication. In addition to that, it is practical and interactive for the user, since information is obtained through augmented reality using the camera of the mobile device, which is of great help for all staff and even more so when you are new to the university, locating the user within the educational complex and thus improving arrival times to classrooms [5].

Augmented reality using Vuforia for residential marketing
Through the application, the way in which the sale of real estate is understood and promoted is changed, since it is not necessary to travel to its physical location to be able to observe it in detail. This was done through the application of augmented reality to generate the property in 3D, allowing the potential buyer to visualize the place interactively and also making it easier for them to obtain more information, rendering it no longer necessary to make an appointment with the owner [6].

An Augmented Reality App for Smart Campus Development -MSKU Campus Prototype
Smart cities allow locals or tourists to improve interactions and thus guarantee meaningful experiences when visiting the place, with this approach applied to the smart campus. For example, "The University of Exeter disappeared a dynamic AR landscape of flora and fauna. Using Augmented Reality, the campus was transformed into accessible learning materials and resources to support the formal and informal curriculum" [7]. This kind of implementation benefits all staff of an educational institution, whose benefit is obtained through the use of a mobile device that facilitates interaction between students and the entity by having information more efficiently.

Service architecture for the location of people and objects in closed spaces
This was a thesis in marking for a Master's degree in Computer Science carried out by the authors [8]. Due to the difficulty generated when arriving at a shopping center for the first time, where it is difficult to locate and find a point of reference without any guide, the authors propose a service architecture that allows adapting in an easy and less complex way to the different modular components of a localization application in closed spaces, allowing configuration without modifying the services it provides. This is taken as a reference given that the purpose is similar, differentiating it in terms of the use of the technologies used for its construction.

ICT applied to cultural heritage: use, dissemination and accessibility. The roman amphitheater of Cartagena
In this project, the authors [9] propose the design and use of a free augmented reality and virtual reality tool to help the archaeologist to fully digitize the Roman amphitheater of Cartagena to provide accessibility to the elderly and people with motor disabilities that prevents them from visiting. This work is very important because it shows the advantages of making use of this type of emerging technology to navigate a place.

Mobile augmented reality prototype for a mass transportation system in the city of Barranquilla
The authors [10], through augmented reality, seek that public transport users can visualize nearby routes and parking lots with the aim of facilitating movement by providing effective and truthful information using the Android platform and the OpenGL library. This article contributed the study of the platforms which was important for the implementation of the app that is proposed as AR position U.

Means of tourist interpretation through the use of augmented reality in the Cuicocha lagoon
The author [11] posited that the use of augmented reality technology has become an important factor in different fields of action. To comply with this work, research methods, techniques and instruments were specified, as well as the tourist context where the implementation of augmented reality was carried out in order to manage the provision of information for the Lagoon of Cuicocha in an interactive and dynamic way. This project shows the importance of using augmented reality as a means of tourist support for those who visit this place.

Augmented reality and geographic content in educational itineraries. Didactic proposal for its enhancement in the training of Primary Education teachers
In this article [12], the authors present a proposal where they intend to show the geographical contents in a significant way through the didactic methodology based on constructivism in order to create a significant teaching-learning process through augmented reality as a complementary instrument.

Traveling to other worlds. Virtual reality and augmented reality in cultural spaces
Here, the author [13] presents the realities regarding the use augmented and virtual reality with respect to the inclusion of cultural dissemination and its commercial exploitation. This article was very important since it could support the justification of the proposed tool.

Use of augmented reality in teaching -learning of Natural Sciences
In this article [14], the authors propose augmented reality as an instrument for the teaching and learning of Natural Sciences, where animations were recreated in a dynamic way that helped reinforce the learning of the contents in an interactive way.
This work was referenced for its methodological process model.
It is important to mention the different theoretical bases that support the work and, in turn, highlight the use of augmented reality in different scenarios:

Augmented reality
There are two technologies that can be confused; therefore, it is important to highlight the differences between "virtual reality" vs "augmented reality". Despite having similarities, virtual reality detaches the user from reality and augmented reality allows reinforcing reality with digital projections through equipment such as smartphones or tablets [15].

History
In 1901, the writer Frank Baum imagined glasses that allowed information about people to be visualized. In 1957, Morton Heiling, a cinematographer, implemented augmented reality through his Sensorama, improving the user experience. However, time passed, and in the 1990s, the Boeing researcher Thomas Caudell coined the term augmented reality [16].

Definitⁱon
Augmented reality is a technology that allows generating new experiences by combining the digital world and the physical world from an easily accessible device such as the mobile phone [1].

How does it work
Augmented reality is based on superimposing virtual objects that can be in 2D or 3D on the real world. For its execution or operation, it requires the following elements: • Camera: which is responsible for capturing images of the real world.
• Device that allows for the visualizing of the result of the combination of the virtual and the real.
• The application in charge of carrying out the combination.
• A Marker: a physical image that acts as the trigger for augmented reality, and to which the virtual elements are anchored. It is identified by the device's camera and the software processes the image to carry out the required actions.

Augmented reality applications
The use of augmented reality when applied facilitates the interaction and understanding of the real world. This is applicable in different areas where human beings interact:

Games
Games are a clear example that allow us to demonstrate the evolution of this technology. Augmented reality transforms the game environment and allows greater realism, thus generating new experiences. The Pokémon video game was launched in 1996 for the Nintendo Game Boy console, and after 20 years through the course and evolution of the different game consoles, it has now reached the screens of mobile devices with "Pokemon Go" that implements augmented reality which, according to the dynamics of the game, through the camera and GPS of the mobile device, you must search and catch the creatures called Pokémon that are in the player's environment [17].
Teaching [18] The strategies that teachers use to teach imply a lot in the speed of learning of the given subject, even more so when there are technological tools that support the development of this activity, allowing to visualize objects in 3D from what facilitates having a better perception and comprehension. One example is for architecture students; they can generate elements of a building and in this way speed up the generation of ideas and architectural proposals. Another example would be the Google SkyMap application, which superimposes information regarding stars as the user observes the sky through the mobile device's camera. Marketing and sales [19] Marketing represents a fundamental part of many companies, because the demand for a product depends on the marketing strategies used to capture the attention of the consumer; even more so when they involve innovative sales methods or seek the comfort of the client. By implementing augmented reality in sales, customers will be able to test the product without having to have it physically. Benefits can be had when there is a requirement to measure clothing or accessories, or when trying to fit furniture for a house.

Travel and tour guides
Tourism is an area that has evolved in the way it is promoted in order to attract tourists. In many places, they have implemented technological means that allow tourists to relive the history of the environment through the mobile device. "Latest generation holograms, augmented reality and immersive videos are part of the experiences offered by the center, located in Parques del Río" [20]. It is the first smart park located in the city of Medellín, which focuses on being friendly to the environment using renewable energy and through the Medellín Travel mobile application, the tourist will be able to access images, videos and audio logs regarding the culture of the region.

Maintenance processes
Complex machinery, such as vehicles or aircraft, require strict maintenance processes. Augmented reality allows for the optimization of the repair or maintenance work times by overlaying information about the parts that are being manipulated. This technology may be used by large companies such as Boeing in the aircraft wiring process, or simply by non-experts looking to carry out simple repairs of equipment or installations at home.

Search processes
At present, navigation and search processes have been automated from a device, otherwise it is done through a physical map or by asking people. With technological advances, applications have emerged that optimize this process to find places more easily, such as: parking lots, parks, drug stores, hotels, restaurants, etc. In this way, by implementing augmented reality, the user will be able to view, through the camera and the screen of the device, information on places of interest, or with improved coverage, the streets of a city or the corridors of a building.

Medicine
Medicine is a field with a variety of high-risk procedures, so professionals in this area require a lot of context information. Having the 3-dimensional layout of organs or bones involved in a surgical procedure is very helpful by providing information digitally and easily accessible to the interested party. It should be clarified that in this situation markers will no longer be used for their actions, but wave-based systems to obtain said information. Augmented reality in the field of medicine is not specifically defined by the complexity, costs, technological equipment and other implications that it entails; However, there are prototypes. An example is at the Virgen de Rocío Hospital in Seville, which has software with the ability to give a three-dimensional view of a heart and thus provide greater precision, thus facilitating timely diagnoses and avoiding invasive procedures in the patient [1].

Visual search engines
By a different path, but related to augmented reality, are the visual search engines that allow the user, through the camera of his mobile device, to take a picture of the object, plant, animal or text on which they want to obtain more information. Therefore, the environment would become a kind of catalogue, with infinite possibilities. An example is the Google Lens application which has multiple actions such as searching from an image loaded from the device. Activating the camera, it is possible to translate text, identify and copy text, etc., thus speeding up writing text or voice dictation to the search engine [21].

METODOLOGY
For the development of this project, it was divided into phases, which in turn were subdivided into tasks allowing control and order in its elaboration. For this reason, for the elaboration of the ARPositionU proposal that is described in this article, The Guide To The Fundamentals Of Project Management Or Guide PMBOK [22] was referenced in order to establish the phases in which the project was divided. In this way and through the task breakdown diagram Figure 1, it was decided that this would be under an agile development framework, for which three phases will take place: • Phase 1. Initiation and planning.
• Phase 2. Execution. In the same way, within the management, a contract and a start-up act were structured to open the proposal that was proposed and start with the development of each of the planned activities.

Phase 2. Execution:
The execution was carried out under an agile development framework, for which the different existing methodologies for this type of development were taken into account and it was decided to implement the XP methodology (Extreme Programming) [23]. Composed of 5 phases, it stands out for having a functional product in a very short time. Iterations are also continuously carried out to obtain a better quality product and it works well for small work teams thanks to its simplicity. It is important to note that this methodology is also extinct thanks to a systematic review of the literature [10], which provided the necessary arguments to reach their selection.

Planning:
In this phase of the methodology, the different guidelines that must be met, and the application and the plans to be implemented in the development were defined. It began with the construction of user stories [24], where the functionalities that the system must have were specified. The iteration plan was also established; in this case there were two. In the first iteration, 8 user stories were assigned, which comprised moderate difficulty, and in the second iteration, the remaining 3 user stories.  Figure 2. Additionally, the sequence diagram was generated, in which the functionality of the application is evidenced in an organized way.   Table 3). 8 test cases were needed, of which the success was 8 out of 8; in this way, it was possible to verify the correct operation of the application. 3.3. Phase 3. Training and closure: In the last phase, a focus group was interacted with, to which the main functions of the application were explained, according to their role; they also have the support of the user manual. In this way, it was possible to verify and analyze the user parameters. Finally, the documentation and source code was delivered to close the project.

ANALYSIS AND RESULTS
The study of related works was crucial in the consolidation of this proposal, as it allowed us to explore the most suitable platform for developing the tool, and to determine the methodological approach towards its construction. Through the adoption of agile methodologies, we were able to systematically structure each stage of the Extreme Programming (XP) development process. In this regard, the theoretical foundation identified helped us justify the use of Augmented Reality as an interactive means of conveying information. As a result, this theoretical basis enabled us to consolidate our proposal and validate the use of Augmented Reality. The platform used (Unity) facilitated the accelerated development of the application thanks to its graphic tools and integration with technologies such as Vuforia for the implementation of augmented reality, but with the limitations of working with a version equal to or greater than Android 8.0 and permanent Internet use.
In the tests carried out, it was shown that the download and registration processes in the system required more time than expected, due to the limited speed of the Internet and the additional verification steps outside the application. After this, the user who logged into the application was able to organize some of the subjects corresponding to the schedule of his semester. Finally, these materials can be represented as augmented reality elements in the place where the users were found, facilitating being able to locate themselves within the facilities. For this, the label located near the room must be approached to be able to visualize and obtain detailed information of the event in real-time. These users could publicize the benefits of the presented utility, where arrival times at a destination will be reduced without the need to interfere with the activities that are in progress in said environment.

CONCLUSIONS
It was possible to verify the correct functioning of the system, satisfying the needs of users when orienting themselves in a place, avoiding intrusion and improving times, resulting in a useful and accepted tool by the student and teaching community.
Augmented reality by superimposing virtual objects on the real world makes it easy for users to obtain information about a university environment, which is available through an application on a smart mobile device that most people have today. In the same way, it is applicable in different fields, such as: tourism, education, medicine and factories, thus promoting the creation of new projects of this type by recognizing the usefulness it can provide.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT I would like to express my gratitude to the Universidad del Cauca, particularly to its GTI research group and the Beta Bit team from the Faculty of Engineering at Colegio Mayor of Cauca University, for their invaluable support in the development of this project.