Augmented reality dynamic plots techniques for producing and interacting in Augmented Reality with paper plots for which accompanying metadata is accessible

1. A method comprising:

printing a dynamic plot;

obtaining, by a mobile appliance, metadata corresponding to the dynamic plot;

capturing, by a camera of the mobile appliance, an image of the dynamic plot;

calculating a position of the camera of the mobile appliance with respect to the dynamic plot from the image of the dynamic plot;

displaying the image captured by the camera of the dynamic plot on a display screen of the mobile appliance;

placing, in response to input by a user on the mobile appliance, an annotation at a selected location in the image captured by the camera of the dynamic plot; and

using the calculated position of the camera, updating the metadata corresponding to the dynamic plot to reflect the added annotation.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the printing further comprises:

assigning the dynamic plot a unique plot identifier (ID);

adding an identifier that indicates the unique plot ID to the dynamic plot; and

printing the dynamic plot with the added identifier.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein the added identifier is a barcode.

4. The method of claim 2 wherein the printing further comprises:

creating an entry in a database that maps the unique plot ID of the dynamic plot to information that identifies the metadata corresponding to the dynamic plot.

5. The method of claim 4 wherein the obtaining further comprises:

capturing, by the camera of the mobile appliance, an image of the identifier on the dynamic plot;

decoding the identifier to determine the unique plot ID of the dynamic plot; and

using the unique plot ID to access the metadata corresponding to the dynamic plot.

6. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

using the calculated position to overlay additional information or icons beyond what is printed on the dynamic plot at particular locations in the image captured by the camera of the dynamic plot; and

displaying the image captured by the camera of the dynamic plot with the overlaid information or icons on the display screen of the mobile appliance.

7. The method of claim 6 wherein the additional information comprises properties of an object printed on the dynamic plot.

8. The method of claim 6 wherein the additional information comprises an annotation created by a user of the mobile appliance.

9. The method of claim 6 wherein the icons comprises one or more of a text note icon, an audio note icon, picture icon and a movie icon.

10. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

overlaying a marker at a predetermined location in the image captured by the camera of the dynamic plot; and

using the marker as a selection cursor to select objects in the dynamic plot, draw annotations on the dynamic plot or interact with the dynamic plot.

11. The method of claim 10 wherein the marker is a crosshair and the predetermined location is the center of the image captured by the camera of the dynamic plot.

12. The method of claim 1 wherein the obtaining further comprises:

accessing, by the mobile appliance, one or more servers, via a long-range wireless connection, the one or more servers maintaining a dynamic plot metadata database; and

retrieving at least some metadata corresponding to the dynamic plot over the long-range wireless connection from the dynamic plot metadata database.

13. The method of claim 1 wherein the obtaining further comprises:

loading the mobile appliance, at a first location, with at least a portion of a dynamic plot metadata database via a wired or short-range wireless connection; and

transporting the mobile appliance to a second location, remote from the first location, prior to the capturing, calculating, displaying, placing and updating.

14. The method of claim 1 wherein the updating further comprises:

accessing a mapping between a coordinate system of the dynamic plot and a coordinate system used with engineering data; and

transforming the annotations based on the mapping.

15. The method of claim 14 further comprising:

creating a version of an electronic plot including the transformed annotations; and

saving the version of the electronic plot on one or more servers accessible to other users.