OKU Laboratory

Projection mapping on a moving object -- Lumipen --

 

Projection mapping technology is a highly anticipated area, which has been used for mere optical effects or interactive AR applications. However, until now mainly static objects, such as things placed on tables, walls, floors or desk surfaces, have been subjected to the projected information. Dynamic scenes and high-speed objects have not been dealt with. Even if this was tried using a traditional projection mapping system, there would be a misalignment between the target and the projection due to delay in the system.

 

Therefore, we proposed an unprecedented projection mapping technology aimed at moving targets, which is achieved by means of a high-speed vision system capable of capturing a thousand images per second and a high-speed optical device, called Saccade Mirror. This device was originally designed to keep the camera gaze fixed at a dynamic target (cf. 1 ms Auto Pan-tilt). In our projection mapping system, the projector and camera are coaxially aligned in the Saccade Mirror which provides a misalignment free projection that previously was considered to be difficult. This technology is named "Lumipen" after an imaginary pen with illumination instead of ink, where arbitrary patterns can be depicted. Fig. 1 and Fig. 2 indicate the concept of Lumipen and a scene of projecting some patterns on a moving ball respectively.