Methods Ī projection mapping test grid projected onto a buildingĪdjustments are commonly needed and made by manually tweaking either the physical or virtual scene for best results. By 2001, more artists began using projection mapping in artwork, and groups such as Microsoft began experimenting with it as a means of technological advancement. The first time the concept of projection mapping was investigated academically was at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in the late 1990s, where a team led by Ramesh Raskar worked on a project called Office of the Future to connect offices from different locations by projecting people into the office space as if they were really there. The film's images were digitally pre-distorted to map correctly onto the sphere from the high projection angle in the Booth theater. Due to the brightness limitations of video projection at the time, the images were projected using 7000w xenon-illuminated 35mm motion picture film (at 48 frames per second). It was used at the end of Act II, in the Chromolume #7 special effects sequence designed by Bran Ferren to project geometrically-correct moving cinematic images onto the surface of the 4' diameter sphere topping the Chromolume device. In 1984 the Stephen Sondheim original Broadway production of Sunday in the Park With George, written and directed by James LaPine, was the first known use of projection mapping in a Broadway musical or play.
The next record of projection mapping is from 1980, when installation artist Michael Naimark filmed people interacting with objects in a living room and then projected it in the room, creating illusions as if the people interacting with the objects were really there.
Another early example of projection mapping was in the 1967 TV movie Magical Mystery Tour during the Blue Jay Way scene, where images were projected onto George Harrison, including a cat's face and a headless male torso with the words "Magical Mystical Boy" written on its chest. The singers' faces were filmed on 16mm film and projected onto busts of their faces to make the busts appear animated. One of the first public displays of projections onto 3D objects was debuted in 1969, when Disneyland opened their Haunted Mansion attraction, which featured singing three-dimensional busts. In recent years this technique has also been widely used in the context of cultural heritage as it has proved to be an excellent edutainment tool thanks to the combined use of a digital dramaturgy.Īlthough the term "projection mapping" is relatively new, the technique dates back to the late 1960s, where it was referred to as the Madame Leota effect, video mapping, spatial augmented reality, or shader lamps. The video is commonly combined with, or triggered by, audio to create an audio-visual narrative. This technique is used by artists and advertisers alike who can add extra dimensions, optical illusions, and notions of movement onto previously static objects.
The software can interact with a projector to fit any desired image onto the surface of that object. By using specialized software, a two- or three-dimensional object is spatially mapped on the virtual program which mimics the real environment it is to be projected on. These objects may be complex industrial landscapes, such as buildings, small indoor objects or theatrical stages. Projection mapping, similar to video mapping and spatial augmented reality, is a projection technique used to turn objects, often irregularly shaped, into a display surface for video projection. Projection mapping of a pattern onto curved surfaces