The ASPECTA toolkit : affordable Full Coverage Displays

Full Coverage Displays (FCDs) cover the interior surface of an entire room with pixels. FCDs make possible many new kinds of immersive display experiences - but current technology for building FCDs is expensive and complex, and software support for developing full-coverage applications is limited. To address these problems, we introduce ASPECTA, a hardware configuration and software toolkit that provide a low-cost and easy-to-use solution for creating full coverage systems. We outline ASPECTA’s (minimal) hardware requirements and describe the toolkit’s architecture, development API, server implementation, and configuration tool; we also provide a full example of how the toolkit can be used. We performed two evaluations of the toolkit: a case study of a research system built with ASPECTA, and a laboratory study that tested the effectiveness of the API. Our evaluations, as well as multiple examples of ASPECTA in use, show how ASPECTA can simplify configuration and development while still dramatically reducing the cost for creators of applications that take advantage of full-coverage displays.Postprin

THE SMART BOOKSHELF

The smart bookshelf serves as a test-bed to study environments that are intelligently augmented by projector-camera devices. The system utilizes a camera pair and a projector coupled with an RFID reader to monitor and maintain the state of a real world library shelf. Using a simple calibration scheme, the homography induced by the world plane in which book spines approximately lie is estimated. As books are added to the shelf, a foreground detection algorithm which takes into account the projected information yields new pixels in each view that are then verified using a planar parallax constraint across both cameras to yield the precise location of the book spine. The system allows users to query for the presence of a books through a user interface, highlighting the spines of present book using the known locations obtained through foreground detection and transforming image pixels to their corresponding points in the projectors frame via a derived homography. The system also can display the state of the bookshelf at any time in the past. Utilizing RFID tags increases robustness and usefulness of the application. Tags encode information about a book such as the title, author, etc, that can be used to query the system. It is used in conjunction with the visual system to infer the state of the shelf. This work provides a novel foreground detection algorithm that works across views, using loose geometric constraints instead pixel color similarity to robustly isolate foreground pixels. The system also takes into account projected information which if not handled would be detrimental to the system. The intent of this work was to study the feasibility of an augmented reality system and use this application as a testbed to study the issues of building such a system

Toolkit support for interactive projected displays

Interactive projected displays are an emerging class of computer interface with the potential to transform interactions with surfaces in physical environments. They distinguish themselves from other visual output technologies, for instance LCD screens, by overlaying content onto the physical world. They can appear, disappear, and reconfigure themselves to suit a range of application scenarios, physical settings, and user needs. These properties have attracted significant academic research interest, yet the surrounding technical challenges and lack of application developer tools limit adoption to those with advanced technical skills. These barriers prevent people with different expertise from engaging, iteratively evaluating deployments, and thus building a strong community understanding of the technology in context. We argue that creating and deploying interactive projected displays should take hours, not weeks. This thesis addresses these difficulties through the construction of a toolkit that effectively facilitates user innovation with interactive projected displays. The toolkit’s design is informed by a review of related work and a series of in-depth research probes that study different application scenarios. These findings result in toolkit requirements that are then integrated into a cohesive design and implementation. This implementation is evaluated to determine its strengths, limitations, and effectiveness at facilitating the development of applied interactive projected displays. The toolkit is released to support users in the real-world and its adoption studied. The findings describe a range of real application scenarios, case studies, and increase academic understanding of applied interactive projected display toolkits. By significantly lowering the complexity, time, and skills required to develop and deploy interactive projected displays, a diverse community of over 2,000 individual users have applied the toolkit to their own projects. Widespread adoption beyond the computer-science academic community will continue to stimulate an exciting new wave of interactive projected display applications that transfer computing functionality into physical spaces

Updating the art history curriculum: incorporating virtual and augmented reality technologies to improve interactivity and engagement

Master's Project (M.Ed.) University of Alaska Fairbanks, 2017This project investigates how the art history curricula in higher education can borrow from and incorporate emerging technologies currently being used in art museums. Many art museums are using augmented reality and virtual reality technologies to transform their visitors' experiences into experiences that are interactive and engaging. Art museums have historically offered static visitor experiences, which have been mirrored in the study of art. This project explores the current state of the art history classroom in higher education, which is historically a teacher-centered learning environment and the learning effects of that environment. The project then looks at how art museums are creating visitor-centered learning environments; specifically looking at how they are using reality technologies (virtual and augmented) to transition into digitally interactive learning environments that support various learning theories. Lastly, the project examines the learning benefits of such tools to see what could (and should) be implemented into the art history curricula at the higher education level and provides a sample section of a curriculum demonstrating what that implementation could look like. Art and art history are a crucial part of our culture and being able to successfully engage with it and learn from it enables the spread of our culture through digital means and of digital culture

The Work of Art in the Age of Digital Fragility

Impermanence and fragility have become the defining conditions of the digital age. Technologies that were ubiquitous barely a decade ago, like floppy disks, now look like archaeological relics. It takes only a few years, if not months, before software environments are replaced by newer versions, often with limited backward compatibility. At the same time, digital technologies rely on hardware that has short life expectancy. The radical obsolescence of this new digital register raises a number of important questions. How are we going to prevent the fragile memories of contemporary digital cultures from receding into oblivion? This essay answers this question by looking at one of the institutions in which the problems associated with digital fragility are most especially felt, the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), and by exploring the ontological displacements that digital objects are operating at the heart of the museum

Roomalive: Magical experiences enabled by scalable, adaptive projector-camera units

ABSTRACT RoomAlive is a proof-of-concept prototype that transforms any room into an immersive, augmented entertainment experience. Our system enables new interactive projection mapping experiences that dynamically adapts content to any room. Users can touch, shoot, stomp, dodge and steer projected content that seamlessly co-exists with their existing physical environment. The basic building blocks of RoomAlive are projector-depth camera units, which can be combined through a scalable, distributed framework. The projector-depth camera units are individually autocalibrating, self-localizing, and create a unified model of the room with no user intervention. We investigate the design space of gaming experiences that are possible with RoomAlive and explore methods for dynamically mapping content based on room layout and user position. Finally we showcase four experience prototypes that demonstrate the novel interactive experiences that are possible with RoomAlive and discuss the design challenges of adapting any game to any room

Ubiquitous interactive displays: magical experiences beyond the screen

Ubiquitous Interactive Displays are interfaces that extend interaction beyond traditional flat screens. This thesis presents a series of proof-of-concept systems exploring three interactive displays: the first part of this thesis explores interactive projective displays, where the use of projected light transforms and enhances physical objects in our environment. The second part of this thesis explores gestural displays, where traditional mobile devices such as our smartphones are equipped with depth sensors to enable input and output around a device. Finally, I introduce a new tactile display that imbues our physical spaces with a sense of touch in mid air without requiring the user to wear a physical device. These systems explore a future where interfaces are inherently everywhere, connecting our physical objects and spaces together through visual, gestural and tactile displays. I aim to demonstrate new technical innovations as well as compelling interactions with one ore more users and their physical environment. These new interactive displays enable novel experiences beyond flat screens that blurs the line between the physical and virtual world