Third IEEE and ACM International Symposium on Mixed and Augmented Reality (ISMAR'04)
Embedding Imperceptible Patterns into Projected Images for Simultaneous Acquisition and Display
Arlington, VA, USA
November 02-November 05
ISBN: 0-7695-2191-6
We introduce a method to imperceptibly embed arbitrary binary patterns into ordinary color images displayed by unmodified off-the-shelf Digital Light Processing (DLP) projectors. The encoded images are visible only to cameras synchronized with the projectors and exposed for a short interval, while the original images appear only minimally degraded to the human eye. To achieve this goal, we analyze and exploit the micro-mirror modulation pattern used by the projection technology to generate intensity levels for each pixel and color channel. Our real-time embedding process maps the user's original color image values to the nearest values whose camera-perceived intensities are the ones desired by the binary image to be embedded. The color differences caused by this mapping process are compensated by error-diffusion dithering. The non-intrusive nature of our novel approach allows simultaneous (immersive) display and acquisition under controlled lighting conditions, as defined on a pixel level by the binary patterns. We therefore introduce structured light techniques into human-inhabited mixed and augmented reality environments, where they previously often were too intrusive.
Citation:
Daniel Cotting, Martin Naef, Markus Gross, Henry Fuchs, "Embedding Imperceptible Patterns into Projected Images for Simultaneous Acquisition and Display," ismar, pp.100-109, Third IEEE and ACM International Symposium on Mixed and Augmented Reality (ISMAR'04), 2004