Over at UC Irvine they’ve created a new generation of panoramic display technology that uses multiple projectors in a blending setup combined with high-resolution cameras watching the screen for a fully automatic calibration and alignment. Typically alignment and blending issues take lengthy calibration cycles, or expensive maintenance contracts, and now they’ve done it all automatically.
While amusement parks, flight training operations and others have long created virtual reality environments, the UCI group’s software will be compatible with new digital equipment and allows the use of everyday cameras and far cheaper projectors. Perhaps most important, the calibration process between the camera and the projectors – key to image quality – is completely automated.
“You can do this with the single press of a button,” Majumder says. “An elementary school could have its own little planetarium. It would be easy to build and not cost very much.”
Many people believe that such large and interactive displays are a fading tech, but the next generation may see things differently.
Majumder knew her team was on the right track when she brought her daughter to the lab one Friday night. The 4-year-old ran up to the map on the wall, waved her hand and laughed gleefully as it zoomed out.
“Mommy, this is the big iPhone,” she giggled.
via Visualizing the future: Lab team develops better, simpler, cheaper display technologies.
