UltraLux: Low-Resolution Full-Coverage Room Displays

Description

Display surfaces that cover entire rooms have been discussed for many years, but few technologies allow researchers to explore the design possibilities of these environments. We have developed a feasible and low-cost sys-tem called UltraLux that provides full display coverage of a room’s interior. UltraLux uses a standard projector and a dome mirror costing less than $100, and combines these with software to allow effortless placement of images, cursors, and shapes anywhere on a room’s surfaces. Low Resolution Full Coverage (LRFC) displays such as UltraLux allow new explorations of immersive display applications, helping designers think about the kinds of applications that can be built for future ubiquitous display technologies. In this project we set out a design space for LRFCs that combines characteristics of the display, the room, and the user to enable novel applications for notification, ambient awareness, augmented reality, and spatial indexing. Our work shows that LRFCs like UltraLux can plan an important role in an overall ecology of displays in a room environment.

Images and Videos

Schematic of UltraLux setup

UltraLux display over a printer

UltraLux display of a file dragged to the real-world printer

 

Partners

NSERC – SurfNet