High-Contrast Projection Mapping under Light Field Illumination with LED Display and Aperiodic Lens Array

TL;DR

This paper introduces a novel light-field illumination system combining LED display and aperiodic lens arrays to enable high-contrast projection mapping in bright environments, overcoming the traditional dark-room constraint.

Contribution

It presents a compact, controllable lighting system with optimized lens placement and dynamic luminance computation for effective projection mapping without dark environments.

Findings

Achieves high-contrast projection mapping in bright settings.

Reproduces natural soft shadows comparable to typical lighting.

Demonstrates effectiveness through prototype experiments.

Abstract

Projection Mapping (PM) is a technology that projects images onto the surfaces of physical objects, allowing multiple users to share an augmented reality experience without special devices. However, its practical use has been constrained by the need for dark environments to ensure high-quality projection. To overcome this ``dark-room constraint,'' we propose a novel target-excluding lighting method that selectively illuminates the surrounding environment while avoiding the PM target. Our system achieves light-field illumination by combining an LED display panel with an optimized aperiodic lens array. The key contributions include a compact form factor that provides a large effective light source area, reproducing natural soft shadows comparable to typical lighting, while maintaining the spatial controllability needed to precisely avoid the target. We also introduce a computational technique for optimizing aperiodic lens placement to suppress undesired dark spots caused by crosstalk, and efficient methods for computing LED luminance patterns that enable dynamic PM. Experiments with a prototype system demonstrate that our approach achieves high-contrast PM even in bright environments.