Overview of hybrid tracking in augmented reality

Hybrid tracking is one of the most important key technologies having received rapid development over the past twenty years in the field of augmented reality (AR). It is an effective approach to realize head-pose tracking with high accuracy and strong robustness for AR application systems. This paper tries to provide a complete and comprehensive survey on hybrid tracking technology. Three important issues involved in hybrid trackers are described in detail, including hybrid tracking method, calibration, and time synchronization. The state-of-the-art applications of different hybrid trackers are introduced. The pending problems and development tendency of hybrid tracking technology are discussed, and finally the application prospect is reviewed.