The Augmented World conceptual framework [5, 6] aims at exploring the use of the agent paradigm to design and develop agent-based pervasive mixed reality systems - called augmented worlds (AWs) - integrating both concepts and technology from Augmented/Mixed Reality and from Pervasive Computing/IoT. MiRAgE is a technological framework to explore in practice the design and development of AWs, possibly in different application domains. Key requirements for the platform are: to support heterogeneous agent technologies to implement the agents inside an AW; to reuse and exploit state-of-the-art AR/MR enabling technologies, properly encapsulated so as to keep the agent-oriented level of abstraction de ned by the AW conceptual framework.
MiRAgE - Fig. 1 shows an abstract architecture - provides an API and a runtime to develop and run AugmentedWorlds. According to the AugmentedWorld conceptual framework, an agent-based pervasive mixed reality system (i.e., an AW) is modelled as a multi-agent system - possibly open, heterogeneous, distributed - situated into an application/virtual environment mapped onto some physical space. Such environment is composed by augmented entities (AEs), as computational objects located in some specific point of the physical space - pro- viding some action interface to agents - and possibly featuring an hologram as a AR/MR representation to be perceived by human users situated in the same environment. An AE can be used to model also real objects belonging the physical environment, functioning as a mirror or avatar inside the AW. The framework provide an API to implement AEs in a similar way to objects in mainstream object-oriented programming (OOP) languages.
Agents can dynamically join an AW from any Internet node3 exploiting the Web as underlying protocol - this layer is called Web of Augmented Things (WoAT), being an extension of the Web of Thing (WoT) idea. So heterogeneous agent platforms and technologies can be used to develop agents working inside an AW. Multiple human users can enter and work inside as AW - along with e.g. their personal assistant agents running on their mobile/wearable devices. Each human user is modelled by the framework as a first-class entity, so that an augmented entity associated to the user is automatically created, making it possible to track her position and actions. As shown in Fig. 1, a MiRAgE node is composed by (1) a AW Runtime, where both AEs are in execution and where agents can interact with, and (2) an Hologram Engine to other mixed reality experience, defining and shaping holograms or AEs and proposing them to a multi-user environment, interacting in the AW Runtime context. The Hologram Engine encapsulates and hides the AR/MR enabling technologies, in particular in current version of MiRAgE Unity3D and Vuforia are exploited.