New Patents Granted for Projection Augmented Reality
Over 20 years ago research projects demonstrated projection Augmented Reality to assist a desk worker but very few commercial or residential implementations were built and the technology seemingly lost in favor by comparison with mobile and wearable systems. Perhaps the tides are changing.
According to short analyses published on Wired UK website and on CBRonline news site, the US patent office has published patents granted to Amazon and Apple that build upon those early demonstrations. Amazon’s patent describes “a room equipped with computerized projection and imaging systems that enable presentation of images on various objects within the room to facilitate user interaction with the images and/or objects” while Apple’s uses two cameras to scan a room and then projects images onto objects detected.
The Apple patent also describes an “improved content projection device, which is aware of objects in its field of view, recognizes such objects as suitable for projection of content thereon.” Other research projects similar in design and purpose have been described in the published literature but remain uncommercialized.
It remains to be seen if the systems described in these patents are approaching the level of maturity that would be useful in enterprise environments, but others, such as OPS Solutions that provides Light Guide Systems, are proving that spaces in which objects are already well mapped are very suitable with current camera and projection technologies.