Fully automatic multi-projector calibration with an uncalibrated camera

Multiple video projectors can be used to provide a seamless, undistorted image or video over one or more display surfaces. Correct rendering requires calibration of the projectors with respect to these surface(s) and an efficient mechanism to distribute and warp the frame buffer data to the projectors. Typically, the calibration process involves some degree of manual intervention or embedding of optical sensors in the display surface itself, neither of which is practical for general deployment by non-technical users. We show that an effective result can in fact be achieved without such intervention or hardware augmentation, allowing for a fully automatic multi-projector calibration that requires nothing more than a low-cost uncalibrated camera and the placement of paper markers to delimit the boundaries of the desired display region. Both geometric and intensity calibration are performed by projection of gray-coded binary patterns, observed by the camera. Finally, the frame buffer contents for display are distributed in real time by a remote desktop transport to multiple rendering machines, connected to the various projectors.