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Projecting Video On Curved Surfaces

Posted by timothy on from the angle-dependent dept.

Jochen Bedersdorfer writes "According to golem.de, a research project in the area of Augmented Reality created a technology to project videos onto arbitrary existing screen surfaces, like wallpapered walls or window curtains. ... Quite awesome. Now I can use this ugly corner in my living room effectively."

10 of 177 comments (clear)

  1. Omnimax @ Home? by Viral+Fly-by · · Score: 5, Insightful

    With the rapid expansion of relatively high-end (5|6|7).1 surround sound stereo equipment in homes that is beginning to be joined by HDTV, could a technology like this bring a new option to table? Could we have something like omnimax theatres in our homes?

  2. Just Another... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Just another way to making visual media more exciting to enjoy. Now all we need is for the people producing the media to make something worth watching.

  3. Solution looking for a problem? by GillBates0 · · Score: 4, Insightful
    Video projectors will play a major role in future home entertainment and edutainment applications - ranging from movies and television, over computer games, to multimedia presentation.

    Before televisions became the norm, projectors were a common sight around middle-class homes. I remember my father used to show us home movies, Disney cartoons, and science documentaries on a compact Super 8mm projector on idle evenings.

    I don't remember the size or even the presence of the "canvas screen" being a big issue. A blank wall did just fine (without any significant loss of picture quality IMHO). If a smaller/larger image was desired, the projector was just moved nearer/away from the wall as necessary. Not such a big deal. Ofcourse the room had to be pitch dark because of the low contrast produced by the projector.

    IMHO, this is a solution looking for a problem. I agree the ability to project on curved surfaces might be a bonus, but the pictures did not reveal any significant advantage.

    I was more impressed by the "light insensitive" projector that was on /. a few weeks back - it could display images/video effectively in bright light - can't find the link.

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    1. Re:Solution looking for a problem? by hcdejong · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Lots of people don't have blank walls. Colored wallpaper, non-smooth plastered walls, walls covered with paintings etc. are all unusable with a normal projector.

    2. Re:Solution looking for a problem? by Znork · · Score: 4, Insightful

      If it's unusable with a normal projector it'll still be unusable with projection technologies like this.

      If it's usable with a normal projector you'll get a better quality image with a projector like this.

      It isnt magic. It can compensate for color shifts that would cause distortion, but you still pay in image quality by losing contrast and color range. For an extreme example, take a black and white striped wall. As you're unlikely to have an entirely unreflective surface on a wall, you could create a compensated picture by strongly increasing illumination on the black parts and decreasing it on the white part. However, the maximum brightness of the image becomes the maximum brightness reflectable by the black parts, which decreases the contrast range. Same thing with any other surface, you'll lose quality, you just wont lose as much, or in such a visually disturbing fashion as you would with an ordinary projector.

      So if you care enough about image quality to bother getting an expensive projector you'd probably want to get a projection screen anyway.

      Still, it would be quite useful when you either dont care that much about the image quality, or in situations where you have to project on a not quite suitable surface and cant use a screen.

  4. Re:curved surfaces? by AndroidCat · · Score: 2, Insightful

    How complex are those adjustments? I'm sure that they can handle a tilted or sloped wall, but with an irregular surface, anything mapped to look fine from one angle won't be from another.

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  5. Re:curved surfaces? by deathazre · · Score: 3, Insightful

    As I said, you can still only make it look proper on an irregular surface from one small area. Leave that area and it's distorted again.
    What I probably should have said in the first post: all this technology does is make it so you can move that area around. (of course that area is always going to be where the camera is, in this case)

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  6. Re:Well done. by BarryNorton · · Score: 2, Insightful
    Then you get modded up.

    I thought that jumping on any story from Germany or Japan with little digs based on nationality was the way (?)...

  7. Looks a lot better then I expected by SmallFurryCreature · · Score: 2, Insightful
    If the final image in the examples is the real result then wow. Projecting a movie into a corner and getting a normal picture is nothing to be sneezed at.

    Sure it won't replace regular screen in places where there is room for them, cinema, meeting room, entertainment room, but it seems perfect for holding a demonstration and not having to take a screen with you and for information/commercial displays.

    Eeek more commercials. Bad germans.

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  8. Re:curved surfaces? by SanLouBlues · · Score: 4, Insightful

    True, but think how nifty it would be to project a photo or painting onto a corner, then copy it like the masters did with the camera obscura, and let people ooh and ahh when the walk by it. Or, distort the image to fit an outward corner, then paint it on a flat wall to give the impression of more space.

    It would fit perfectly in any modern art museum.