Live From WARM ’09: Keynote – Projection Over Four Orders of Magnitude

Oliver Bimber (Bauhaus University – Weimar) one of the world’s leaders is spatial augmented reality kicks off with barb: “unlike other sessions, this session is NOT about mobile augmented reality but rather – spatial (projected) augmented reality. Welcome  to the wonderful world of Oliver Bimber.
He projects visuals on every day surfaces, by using structured light and camera feedback.
Oliver amazes by demonstrating a projection on…a glass of wine – using inverted lighting.
Adaptive photometric: Have you ever seen Shrek projected on a stone wall? Oliver makes it look easy with a smooth resulting image.
Another demonstration shows how you can record footage that would usually require a green screen – in the scene itself, with no need to go to a dedicated studio.
Oliver keeps going with Reverse Radiosity and Multi Focal Projection. You have to see it (because I can’t put it in words…)

On to more applications: visualization of radiological images – x ray film, diagnostic monitors, and high quality paper prints – aren’t optimal for diagnostics because of its low contrast.
Super Imposing Dynamic Range (demonstrated at ISMAR ’08.) offers 6 times higher contrast than x ray film.
Radiologists have confirmed that this technique does better than existing techniques.
Another application is for Light Microscopy. Contrast is a problem is shiny surfaces in operations or manufacturing scenarios. Oliver shows a prototype of projected light microscopy – with a size of 2 micro meters that increases the contrast by a factor of 5 and removes the background noise on a more uniform illumination – and this is just the beginning.  This is important for applications of image analysis.

Now why the mysterious title?
Simply because with Oliver’s techniques, contrast is improved by 4 orders of magnitude…

Question from the audience – why not use laser projectors?
Oliver responds that the issue is not within the projector but mostly on the surface – so even with laser projectors you’ll need the compensation discussed.

After lunch – demos!

Live from ISMAR ’08 in Cambridge: Enjoy the Weather…

“Enjoy the weather” uttered sarcastically a kindhearted British witch (aka air hostess) while we were leaving the aircraft; surprisingly – we did in the first day. We were then promised this is accidental and surely the last day of summer. Splendid.

Venice? nope, Cambridge!

Venice, Italy? nope, Cambridge, UK!

I have landed in Cambridge, UK (where people go to augment their reality) and all I ever heard about it – is true: British meadow green, majestic 600 year old buildings, cosmopolitan young folks, fish cakes…a combination that gives this university city its unique aura; a great setting for the event starting tomorrow – reality only better, at ISMAR ’08.

St. Catherine College - can't ask for a nicer place to stay...

St. Catherine College - can't ask for a nicer place to stay...

For those who couldn’t make it, stay tuned for a live coverage of ISMAR ’08, the world’s best augmented reality event.

Featuring AR pioneers such as: Tom Drummond, Paul McIlroy, Mark Billinghurst, Blair MacIntyre, Daniel Wagner, Wayne Piekarski, Uli Bockholt (Fraunhofer IGD), Peter Meier, Mark A. Livingston, Diarmid Campbell, David Murray, Rolf R. Hainich, Oliver Bimber, Hideo Saito and many more —

— overing topics such as: Industrial augmented reality, hand-held augmented reality, displays, user studies, applications, layouts, demos, state-of-the-art AR, and don’t miss the highly anticipated tracking competition.

Welcome all speakers and attendees to the event, and don’t forget: look right first!

If you are at the event (or not) and want to chat, share thoughts, or ask questions – leave a comment here or send a message on facebook.