A tile-based 3D frame using a reconfigurable display matrix

Abstract

Figure 1 shows the diagram of our 3D frame system. The scene image is divided into the same number of the tiles as the display matrix, pre-warped and projected from the left projector onto the non-planar display surface of the matrix. The displacement of each tile is determined by the average depth of the pixels that project onto it. Since the display surface is a discontinuous manifold, shadows occur due to the illumination from the left projector and may be visible to the user in the walking area. The right projector is used to illuminate or hide these shadow regions. The user at the center of the walking area sees a geometrically correct scene image on the non-planar display wall. Users, viewing the display off center, see a geometric approximation to the 3D model with per-pixel illumination. To change the display surface interactively, we have developed a robotic display matrix. Figure 2 shows our matrix with a 16×8 set of display tiles. Each tile is driven by an inexpensive servo motor. We can adjust the tiles’ displacement to create different scenes as well as provide interactivity or dynamic scene support by modifying the tiles’ displacement in real time.