OmniLantern: Design and Implementations of a Portable and Coaxial Omnidirectional Projector-Camera System

Projector-camera (ProCam) systems have been widely used to develop the interactive spatial augmented reality (SAR) environment. However, since the projection angle of the existing ProCams is narrow, it is necessary to deploy multiple ProCams to make an omnidirectional SAR environment. These ProCams need to be calibrated and cannot be moved after calibration. To solve this limitation, we introduce OmniProCam, which is a portable coaxial ProCam combining with an ultra-fisheye lens. The ultra-fisheye lens enables omnidirectional projection and interaction, and the coaxial ProCam enables calibration-free. In order to prove the availability of the OmniProcam system, we develop a prototype named OmniLantern, a portable and omnidirectional device in the shape of Lantern. In this paper, we describe the implementation details of the OmniLantern prototype that bases on the retroreflective markers, distortion correction, gesture recognition, and touch detection. We also introduce some applications which show the advantages of OmniLantern. Finally, we summarize the issue of the OmniLantern and the future potential of the OmniProCam system.