Planning a Climbing Tour with Augmented Reality

Technology is already having an impact on outdoor sports and will change how we prepare for activities. This thesis proposes the use of Augmented Reality (AR) to plan a climbing tour with a printed guidebook, a few days before the activity starts. The benefits of AR for superimposing digital information onto books have been discussed in the field of education. Furthermore, the idea of adding virtual objects on paper maps for outdoor route planning has also been examined. However, a concrete proposal is missing on how AR can be used for planning a climbing tour with a printed guidebook. This research gap is addressed in this explorative study. The necessity for this proposal is obvious: More people than ever are active in the mountains and doing alpine sports such as climbing. An important factor associated with being in the mountains is the risk of accidents. Climbing comes with serious risks for everyone participating in the sport, which can easily turn fatal. Careful tour planning plays a key role in lowering that risk. Today, climbing guidebooks continue to be the primary source of information on climbing areas. Printed guidebooks are limited in analog content. This creates a situation in which the climber needs to seek out additional dynamically changing information, such as f.e. weather data, on other information sources – a situation where AR can help....