POWERPOINT presentations are about to get a sprinkle of fairy dust. A hand-held projector can now create virtual characters and objects that interact with the real world. The device - called Twinkle - projects animated graphics that respond to patterns, shapes or colours on a surface, or even 3D objects such as your hand. It uses a camera to track relevant elements - say a line drawn on a wall - in the scene illuminated by the projector and an accelerometer ensures it can sense the projector's rapid motion and position.
Software then matches up the pixels detected by the camera with the animation, making corrections for the angle of projection and distance from the surface. The device could eventually fit inside a cellphone, researchers of the University of Tokyo mentioned. A prototype which projects a cartoon fairy that bounces off or runs along paintings on a wall or even the surface of a bottle (pictured) was presented at the recent Virtual Reality 2010 meeting in Waltham, Massachusetts.
More information:
http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20627555.100-handheld-projector-images-respond-to-the-real-world.html
More information:
http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20627555.100-handheld-projector-images-respond-to-the-real-world.html