Real-time keystone correction and image stabilization for a mobile projector

Abstract

Today, digital projectors are being widely used across several different environments, including but not limited to classrooms, seminar rooms, home theaters and museums. However, it has been a common assumption that projectors should be firmly fixed at a specific point in space due to the difficulty in installation. Contrary to a common belief, the next generation of projectors--namely, mobile projectors--will most likely be embedded into the more universal mobile devices, such as smartphones, with the advent of technology in the near future. Therefore, projecting images into the physical world will become easier than ever, leading to various interactions via manipulating by hand or attaching to means of transportation. Nonetheless, users will experience distortion and shaking of an image, which prevent them from registering the visual information provided. If users are exposed to a display that trembles irregularly for a long time, they may suffer from dizziness. We propose a methodology using a smartphone to correct keystone distortion and stabilize image from a mobile projector, and we devise a proof-of-concept software prototype that allows users to instantly project a desirable image onto desired planar surfaces.