A Small-Scale and Flexible Platform for Multi-projector Systems Development

Multi-projector systems for VR applications require complex infrastructure composed of several projectors and computers. Management of this complex structure is a challenge and requires expert personnel to keep it operational. In this paper we propose a flexible, mobile, off-the-shelf computing platform, targeted at the development of multi-projector displays algorithms. The goal is to achieve a fast development and debugging environment with low cost and system flexibility. Our approach consists of using pico projectors, that uses DLP technology for high efficiency projection, so that they are assembled in a much smaller size than off-the-shelf multimedia projectors. A grid array of several pico-projectors can be arranged within a small compact structure. Our small-scale platform includes only a laptop computer and an array of projectors, such that it may be easily transported to and mounted anywhere. When comparing to a full-scale multi- projector environment, this platform has several advantages, from a developer´s point of view, such as speedup testing and analysis of applications because of faster overall feedback to compile, run and make visual analysis. We have achieved not only a low cost development environment but also a flexible system, which features faster debugging and small setup time. In our experiments, we have successfully used this platform to develop and validate a geometric and color calibration library for our multi-projector systems called Fast Fusion.