Projector Research

This part of my research is prooving to be the most challenging so far. There seems to be very little information on this feature.

The Projector 

The Phillips LCD projector belongs to my collage, I will use this for testing.

I need to find out if this projector will be suitable for projecting the visual aid onto the surface. 

I have one problem with testing this tho, my table top is not yet translucent. Therefore it the beam of light will just shine straight though the glass.For the time being I made a paper circle of the same diameter of my glass tabletop and stuck it on the wall. By doing this I can work out the distance between the projector and the top of the table.

Calerbration 

Open ReacTivision and by pressing (h) on the keyboard you can access its proputys.

(note:The below picture is displayed in "sorce mode", which comes up if you press (s) on 

your keypad.)

I project the following image onto the white piece of paper that represents my tabletop. To get to this display press (c) on your keyboard. 

(c) means "Toggle Calibration" and can be found under the "CalibrationEngin" heading.

You can change the calibration to fit your personal needs by using (a), (d), (w) and (x) allows you to move though the cross points in this picture. The direction keys on your keypad allows you to modify the graph.

I projected this image onto the white sheet of paper, stood back till it fitted, and took a measument of the beam. To my horror I discovered that the distance of the beam was 9 foot.

I ask myself these question...

1. Where is the projector possitioned in the true ReacTable
2. How is it set up?

I found this picture on the internet

From looking at this picture it tells me a few things..

1. The projector is fixed to the top of the cabinet,
   
2. A mirror is used to extend the distance,
3. IR LED's are used to illuminate the cabinet,
4. the glass table top is not transparent.

I suspect that the mirror could be concave, I will think about this when I start experimenting with mirrors.

Another interesting thing about this picture is the glass tabletop, if I want the visual feed back I need something to project on to which means that I need to figure out a way of changing my transparent glass surface into a frosted translucent interface like the one in the picture.