Challenges for Asynchronous Collaboration in Augmented Reality

Collaboration is a promising area of investigation for Augmented Reality (AR) applications. While there have been numerous examples of co-located and remote synchronous collaborative AR applications, there has not been the same interest in pursuing asynchronous interfaces. Asynchronous processes differ from their synchronous counterparts due to the collaboration occurring over a period of time, without the requirement of all parties being present simultaneously. For AR applications, asynchronous collaboration is typically considered to be the combination of drawn registered annotations, and their review at a later time. The potential on offer far exceeds this stance. This paper uncovers a unique opportunity for pursuing asynchronous collaboration support in AR, identifies how communications can be enhanced, and discusses the research challenges unique to asynchronous collaboration in AR.