Sony has demonstrated a new augmented-reality system called Smart AR that can be built into the company’s future gaming devices.

Unlike many augmented-reality systems, Smart AR uses object recognition rather than satellite tracking or special markers to figure out where to overlay a virtual object. Object recognition works where GPS signals are poor or nonexistent; for example, indoors.

Smart AR identifies objects using “local feature extraction”: it tries to identify salient parts of the object within the image. The system also tracks the object’s movement, and works out its orientation.

Smart AR also builds a rough 3-D map of a room by measuring disparities between different snapshots taken from slightly different perspectives as its camera moves. This allows virtual objects to interact with the environment.

Sony believes that mobile gaming using the PlayStation Portable could prove to be an ideal platform for AR technology.