A context-aware light source

Abstract

We present a technique that combines the visual benefits of virtual enhancement with the intuitive interaction of the real world. We accomplish this by introducing the concept of a context-aware light source. This light source provides illumination based on scene context in real-time. This allows us to project feature enhancement in-place onto an object while it is being manipulated by the user. A separate proxy light source can be employed to enable freely programmable shading responses for interactive scene analysis. We created a prototype hardware setup and have implemented several applications that demonstrate the approach, such as a sharpening light, an edge highlighting light, an accumulation light, and a light with a programmable, nonlinear shading response.