Tiled Projection Onto Deforming Screens

Abstract

For the next generation of visual installations it will not be sufficient to surround the visitor by stunning responsive audiovisual experiences - the next step is that space itself deforms in response to the user or user groups. Dynamic reconfigurable spaces are a new exciting possibility to influence the behaviour of groups and individuals; they may have the potential of stimulating various different social interactions and behaviours in a user-adapted fashion. However, some technical hurdles must be overcome. Projecting on larger surfaces, like a ceiling screen of 6 8 meters, is typically possible only with a tiled projection, i.e., with multiple projectors creating one large seamless image. This works well with a static ceiling; however, when the ceiling dynamically moves and deforms, the tiling becomes visible since the images no longer match. In this paper we present a method that can avoid such artifacts by dynamically adjusting the tiled projection to the deforming surface. Our method is surprisingly simple and efficient, and it does not require any image processing at runtime, nor any 3D reconstruction of the surface at any point.