Compact interactive tabletop with projection-vision

• US 20070201863A1
• Filed: 02/28/2006
• Published: 08/30/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 02/28/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Wilson, Andrew D., Bathiche, Steven
• Granted Patent: US 7,599,561 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 396/429
• CPC Class Codes: G03B 21/008 using micromirror devices
• CPC Class Codes: G03B 29/00 Combinations of cameras, projectors or photographic printing apparatus with non-photographic non-optical apparatus, e.g. clocks or weapons; Cameras having the shape of other objects combinations with flash apparatus G03B15/03
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0425 using a single imaging device like a video camera for tracking the absolute position of a single or a plurality of objects with respect to an imaged reference surface, e.g. video camera imaging a display or a projection screen, a table or a wall surface, on which a computer generated image is displayed or projected tracking a projected light spot to determine a position on a display surface G06F3/0386

Abstract

The subject application relates to a system(s) and/or methodology that facilitate vision-based projection of any image (still or moving) onto any surface. In particular, a front-projected computer vision-based interactive surface system is provided which uses a new commercially available projection technology to obtain a compact, self-contained form factor. The subject configuration addresses installation, calibration, and portability issues that are primary concerns in most vision-based table systems.

Claims

1. A projection-vision system that facilitates sensing and projecting objects as images comprising:

a camera-projection component that comprises a projector and at least one camera attached thereto that captures an input image, an illuminant, whereby the illuminant and the least one camera are rigidly mounted to the projector and the camera-projection component is positioned off to the side of a projection surface; and

an image processor component that processes the input image to yield a display image that is projected onto a projection surface upon which the system is placed.

2. The system of claim 1 is self-contained and portable.

3. A projection-vision system that facilitates sensing and projecting objects as images comprising:

a projection surface on which at least one image is presented; and

an object detection component that computes an edge intensity and orientation everywhere in the at least one image and for each pixel with a high edge intensity that satisfies a threshold, the component uses the edge orientation to establish a rotated local coordinate system, wherein a code value is determined for each pixel and the component checks the code value against a table of codes and if a match exists, then a candidate instance is obtained.

4. The system of claim 3, the object detection component reads each pixel value in a rectified image corresponding to each bit in the code according to a code layout in the rotated coordinate system and thresholds each pixel based on a minimum and maximum value read to determine the code value.

5. The system of claim 3, the code comprises a bar code.

6. The system of claim 3 further comprises an object tracking component that tracks at least one page on the display surface in part by detecting at least two pairs of strong edge parallel lines that are perpendicular to each other.

7. The system of claim 6, the object tracking component recognizes overlapping pages.

8. The system of claim 6, the camera-projection component projects at least one image onto the at least one page.

9. The system of claim 3 further comprises a shadow analysis component that computes shadow images of at least one finger on the projection surface to determine whether the finger is touching or hovering over the surface.

10. The system of claim 9, the shadow analysis component binarizes the input image to yield at least one shadow image.

11. The system of claim 3 further comprises a rank component that ranks each candidate according to some criteria such that a top ranked candidate is taken as a valid code instance and any remaining candidates that overlap are eliminated.

12. The system of claim 3 further comprises one or more remote display surfaces that can display content from the projection surface.

13. A method that facilitates determining whether an object is touching or hovering over an interactive surface in connection with a projection-vision system comprising:

observing finger shadow(s) as they appear on an interactive (or projection) surface;

computing at least one shadow image; and

determining whether the at least one finger is touching or hovering over the surface based on an analysis of the shadow image.

14. The method of claim 13 further comprises triggering content to appear on the surface when at least one of a touch or hovering is determined.

15. The method of claim 13 further comprises interacting with content on the surface via touching the surface.

16. A method that facilitates page tracking in connection with a projection-vision system comprising:

detecting the presence of at least one page;

capturing the at least one page as an image; and

subsequently projecting the image as a virtual representation onto a projection surface.

17. The method of claim 16, detecting at least one page comprises detecting two pairs of parallel strong edge lines that are perpendicular to each other.

18. The method of claim 16 further comprises detecting overlapping pages.

19. The method of claim 16 further comprises projecting the image onto at least one of a real or virtual page on the projection surface in real time.

20. The method of claim 16 further comprises projecting at least one of a movie or a different image onto the image in real-time.