Laser Pointer Tracking in Projector-Augmented Architectural Environments

We present a system that employs a custom-built pan-tilt-zoom camera for laser pointer tracking in arbitrary real environments. Once placed in a room, it carries out a fully automatic self-registration, registrations of projectors, and sampling of surface parameters, such as geometry and reflectivity. After these steps, it can be used for tracking a laser spot on the surface as well as an LED marker in 3D space, using inter-playing fish-eye context and controllable detail cameras. The captured surface information can be used for masking out areas that are problematic for laser pointer tracking, and for guiding geometric and radiometric image correction techniques that enable a projector-based augmentation on arbitrary surfaces. We describe a distributed software framework that couples laser pointer tracking for interaction, projector-based AR as well as video see-through AR for visualizations, with the domain specific functionality of existing desktop tools for architectural planning, simulation and building surveying.