iProCam : a lens-sharing projector-camera system for augmented reality applications

Abstract

Projector-based augmented reality techniques, which have been usually exercised in a laboratory environment using a projector-camera combination, will soon make themselves a practical display solution for a hand-held device. A new problem in the new environment is that neither the projector nor the projection surface stays stationary. This means that the calibration between the two coordinate systems of the projector and the camera will be no more a one-time setup procedure but a complex and dynamic process. The best solution will be to remove the need for calibration from the very beginning by having the projector and the camera share the common lens In addition, sharing the same lens system also make it possible for the projector to maintain the focus using images taken by the camera. iProCam is a prototypical projector-camera system that realized this idea using a beam splitter and a temporal multiplexing technique. This thesis presents the implementation details of iProCam and the results of the experiments to verify the proposed idea.