MotionBeam relies on pico projectors to control games

For individuals interested in gaming, a new domain of interactive activity through handheld projectors has been innovated. Dubbed as MotionBeam, the unique gaming system projects visuals on white screen or walls and at the same time controls character movements on it. The mechanism developed by Disney Research controls game characters through an iPhone attached to a projector and presents a unique gaming system.

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Based on age old system of pre-cinema handheld projectors that used to function through direct physical operation to activate projected images, a group of Students at Carnegie Mellon University namely Karl D.D. Willis, Ivan Poupyrev and Takaaki Shiratori, worked alongside Disney to develop this metaphor for character interaction with hand held projector called Motion Beam. This model imagery enables user to control the actions and gestures of the animated characters on cue through a gleaming ray using a pico projector. Apart from the gaming effects, this futuristic attempt to blend virtual content seamlessly to real world can help in storytelling, educational methods, and numerous other fields of work.

The essence of the MotionBeam metaphor involves the control of an object on the end of a metaphorical ray. The user controls one end of the ray, while the object remains connected to its opposite end. The link created between the device and the projected object by the user causes physical characteristic movements and gesturing of the object. Small gestures include the direction the object faces, animation of the object, size of the object, distance from the end of the MotionBeam, or viewing angle. The response time between gestural motion and change in projected imagery is no more than the frame rate of approximately 40ms. The MotionBeam guides the character through special mappings to route the car or collect stars by the animated character to reach its goal. These movements may also affect other virtual and physical objects in the environment as displayed in the movie clip below.

The prototype on display was made by using an iPod Touch 2G, a Microvision ShowWX laser projector, and a microcontroller-sensor unit. The size of the device is 164 x 62 x 32mm, and can be held easily in an average-sized hand making the user feel like a super controller of his avatar at hand.

Via: UberGizmo