Projector Phones: A New Class of Interfaces for Augmented Reality

With the miniaturization of projection technology, the integration of tinyprojection units into mobile devices is no longer fiction; therefore, such integrated projectors in mobile devices could make mobile projection ubiquitous. These phoneswill have the ability to project large-scale information onto any surfaces in the real world, and by doing so, the interaction space of the mobile device can be considerably expanded. In addition, physical objects in the environment can be augmented with additional information, which can support interaction concepts that are not even possible on modern desktop computers today. The authors believe that mobile camera-projector units can form a promising interface type for mobile Augmented Reality (AR)applications, thus, this paper identifies different application classes of such interfaces. In addition, differentspatial setups of camera and projector units willhave an effect on the possible applications and the interaction space with the focuson the augmentation of real word objects in the environment. This paper presents twoexamples of applications for mobile camera-projector units and different hardware prototypes that allow augmentation of real world objects.