Shadowless Projection Mapping for Tabletop Workspaces with Synthetic Aperture Projector

Area of Science:

• Computer Vision
• Human-Computer Interaction
• Augmented Reality

Background:

• Projection mapping (PM) offers immersive augmented reality (AR) without head-mounted displays, enabling multi-user interaction in tabletop environments.
• Conventional PM systems face challenges with projection shadows due to occlusion and latency from computational compensation in multi-projector setups.
• Existing solutions for occlusion often introduce delays, negatively impacting the user experience in interactive AR applications.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a novel projection mapping system that achieves delay-free, shadowless projection for tabletop augmented reality.
• To address and mitigate spatial resolution degradation caused by subpixel misalignment in dense projector arrays.
• To investigate and minimize the perceptual
• sense of projection
• (SoP) to create more seamless AR experiences.

Main Methods:

• Introduced a synthetic-aperture projection mapping system utilizing a large, densely arranged array of projectors.
• Developed and validated an offline blur compensation method to counteract subpixel misalignment, with computation time independent of projector count.
• Conducted user studies to define the sense of projection and establish a framework for its minimization.

Main Results:

• The synthetic-aperture system successfully achieved delay-free and shadowless projection in tabletop workspaces.
• The offline blur compensation method effectively addressed spatial resolution degradation without increasing computational load.
• Demonstrated that shadowless projection is crucial for minimizing the sense of projection, enhancing the realism of augmented reality.

Conclusions:

• The proposed synthetic-aperture projection mapping system provides a robust solution for shadowless and delay-free AR experiences.
• Minimizing the sense of projection through optimized PM design is key to achieving truly immersive and unobtrusive augmented reality.
• This research advances projection mapping technology for applications requiring seamless integration of virtual content with physical objects.