Maritime navigational assistance by visual augmentation

Several types of equipment have been developed over the years to assist ship operators with their tasks. Nowadays, navigational equipment typically provides an enormous volume of information. Thus, there is a corresponding need for efficiency in how such information is presented to ship operators. Augmented reality (AR) systems are being investigated for such efficient presentation of typical navigational information. The present work is particularly interested in an AR architecture commonly referred as monitor augmented reality (MAR). In this context, the development of MAR systems is briefly summarised. The projection of three-dimensional elements into a camera scene is presented. Potential visual assets are proposed and exemplified with videos from a ship manoeuvring simulator and a real experiment. Enhanced scenes combining pertinent virtual elements are shown exemplifying potential assistance applications. The authors mean to contribute to the popularisation of MAR systems in maritime environments. Further research is suggested to define optimal combinations of visual elements for alternative maritime navigation scenarios. Note that there are still many challenges for the deployment of MAR tools in typical maritime operations.