Projection Mapping
Projection Mapping uses everyday video projectors, but instead of projecting on a flat screen (e.g. to display a PowerPoint), light is mapped onto any surface, turning common objects of any 3D shape into interactive displays. More formally, projection mapping is “the display of an image on a non-flat or non-white surface”.
One of the first examples of Projection Mapping commercially was at DisneyLand California 1969. The dark ride featured a number of interesting optical illusions, including a disembodied head, Madame Leota, and 5 singing busts, the ‘Grim Grinning Ghosts‘, singing the theme song of the ride. These were accomplished by filming head-shots of the singers (with 16 mm film) and then projecting this film onto busts of their faces.
In 1998 Projection mapping really started to get traction when it was pursued in academia. “Spatial Augmented Reality” was born out of the work by at UNC Chapel Hill by Ramesh Raskar, Greg Welch, Henry Fuchs and Deepak Bandyopadhyay et al. It all got started with a paper The Office of the Future [2]. The Office of the Future envisioned a world where projectors could cover any surface. Instead of staring at a small computer monitor, we would be able to experience augmented reality right from our desk. This means we could Skype with life-size versions of our office mates, view life-size virtual 3D models. This work even featured an early real-time, imperceptible 3D scanner (like the Kinect).
Today Projection mapping as an art artform can be used for many things including advertising, live concerts, theater, gaming, computing, decoration and anything else you can think of. Specialized software or just some elbow grease can be used to align the virtual content and the physical objects. One software that allows you to manipulate this virtual content is HeavyM.
Another Projection Mapping software is an app called Dynamapper.