增强现实(augmented reality，AR)技术可以将虚拟的物体合并到现实场景中，并能支持用户与其进行交互，它已经成为虚拟现实研究中的一个重要领域，也是人机界面技术发展的一个重要方向。为了使人们对其有所了解，该文首先概略描述了这个领域的主要研究内容和进展情况，并详细介绍了增强现实中的支撑技术、开发工具和相关理论；然后针对当前AR应用的现状，分析了实现中的难点问题，并给出了与AR普及应用密切相关的一些系统框架和开发平台的描述，最后介绍了几个典型的AR应用实例。

This paper presents a survey on the field of Augmented reality(AR), which combines virtual computer generated material with the surrounding physical world, registers real and virtual object with each other and runs interactively at real time. Now it has become an important research field in VR and next generation of human computer interface. This paper introduces the primary content and state of art in this field. The key technologies, including basic tracking methods, display devices and registration processes, are discussed. Many typical AR applications and developing tools are listed. It describes the characteristic of AR system, with a detail analyzing of some technology difficult problems in AR system. The corresponding solutions are also mentioned. Currently research in AR field is largely focus on the AR system frameworks. Which usually gives a unified interface that supporting heterogeneous AR display devices in different AR applications. The AR frameworks also make the design of AR applications become more convenient. Two most influential AR frameworks, Studierstube and DWARF, are introduced. This survey provides a start point for anyone interested in AR research.