CMU School of Drama


Friday, December 04, 2015

Projection Mapping On 3-D Objects: Researchers Print Onto Moving Objects

Science World Report: Researchers have created a new technology that allows projected images to be perfectly mapped onto moving and rotating objects. The team of researchers from Osaka University in Japan created a new technique that works so well, you would think that an image was precisely fixed onto a moving object.

4 comments:

Katie Pyne said...

If projection mapping on 3D objects is a thing now, I wonder what it will be mainly used for. Off the top of my head, I think that it would be a really cool thing to incorporate into runway shows, since companies are already using to for people to try on clothes. However, here comes the nudity clause. If the projectors go down in the middle of a show, there are no clothes and you are effectively naked in the middle of Fashion Week. It's the 21st century reboot of the Emperor's New Clothes. Expanding beyond wearable technology, this really could help in the manufacturing of prosthetic limbs, as movement in those scenarios is extremely difficult. Honestly, I wish that the article went into more details on the study. I would have loved to see an example of this in action instead of a meager article going over the skeleton of the project.

Unknown said...

This is so much less cool than the title makes it seem. I was not sure how 3-D printing was involved in this, but this is the lamest possible way. So now a computer can keep track of an object that has giant markers on it (theoretically anyway as there is no video attached to this article). You would only use this in the most abstract of theater pieces because a director or designer is not going to want to put giant markers on everything that moves. I realize this is a step towards something cool but we just aren't there yet.

The tech I was hoping for was a program smart enough that given a file the 3-d printer prints, it could projection map onto its surface because it understood the surface flawlessly. I will be much more excited when that happens

Unknown said...

I don't agree that this is lame at all! I think this is actually really great and I love it. This could be used for really great things like theatre in the round, and this is (finally) a REALLY great use of a 3D printer. I haven't really seen anything for 3D printers that is very useful other than small and customizable pieces of electronics or 3D examples of custom made item - prototype style. I am sure that a situation will arise that will make this very useful and effective. It's just nice to have the option to do something like this. Isaac is right that we just aren't quite there yet, and that the markers could be awful, but it's a start! And that's important too.

Alex Fasciolo said...

I’d really like to see how this technology develops, as I’m sure it can be used in theatre in a number of ways. While playing around with lighting and projections in that portion of Design for the Stage this semester, a number of people had the idea to project on a white dress to convey her connection to the scenery, a feat that without a technology like this would be seemingly impossible. However, I’m sure there would be many other applications to this feat as well, it simplifies cuing for digital scenery, it can make projection tracking a lot easier, it unlocks a world where screens that move are projected on can move, we just have to be creative enough to decide what we want those screens to be. Furthermore, I’m sure this technology could be applied to far more than a traditional theatrical performance, I’m sure creators of interactive digital environments would love to get there hands on this technology as well.