Project a Moving Image Onto a Deforming Surface

Projecting a moving image onto a static surface is as old as cinema, but one thing that hasn’t changed is that the projection surface is (normally) kept quite still. What if, however, the projection surface was able to move, shake, or even deform in many directions? Though it seems impossible, the dynamic mapping and projection system from Ishikawa Watanabe Laboratory does just that.

In its incredible video, a moving bunny as well as text is projected onto a t-shirt while the wearer jumps up and down and wrinkles it. The image appears to follow and deform along with the shirt. This is accomplished by a vision system that uses a marker made with infrared ink to change how the image is projected. It does this at 1000 frames per second with only a 3 millisecond delay.

This means the human sees the projection matching the surface, so you can now have a t-shirt with a moving image projected on it. Perhaps something like this would make a great tool for concerts or other performance events!

[h/t Motherboard]