Microsoft pateneted caves?

[bobv5]

I don't really know much about the legal stuff, but it seems microsoft have patented caves.

http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2012/09/m ... e-display/

[TheRealistWord]

It seems really interesting, but I'm just wondering about the practicality of it all, especially since everyone's livingroom differs. Using depth to sense and correct distortion from furniture and other objects seem like a great idea, but I'm wondering things like - compensating for different room sizes (my 3D projector works well in a large room, but in a tiny room, definitely a no-go), would it require multiple projectors to cast an image all around a room, where would the projector be positioned so that the light isn't shining into the player's eyes, having to play in a very dark room (which could be a problem in daytime unless you have some thick curtains), and how well would it go down if you suddenly muttered to your family, "Hey uh... could you all just like... leave the livingroom right now, I want to play some Call of Duty and you're just gonna be a bunch of couch potato targets"

I like the line of thought though! Since it's just a patent, I suppose nothing might even ever come of it, but I'm curious how they were/are planning to implement it to accommodate for so many different livingroom arrangements...

[FingerFlinger]

That's a really cool idea, but man I don't think the tech is there yet. They need to account for depth obviously, but it sounds like they are also accounting for the color of furniture, walls, etc. It will need to be one seriously bright projector. Doing the projection from a single point means there will be occlusion (shadows) problems if the user is not standing beneath the projector.

I'd love to see it though if the latency can be managed, it would still give a pretty awesome experience!

[Likay]

Probably going to try it in some amusement parks for a start. That alone would probably bring both the invest and patentmoney back...

Edit: Hm, saw that the article refers to it as a patentapplication which means that someone else still has the actual patent.

[profvr]

CAVEs are usually back projected. This is front projected, but there are already a few examples of front-projected CAVEs. I've played with front projection off a spherical mirror, and I remember seeing a BBC R&D presentation where they were experimenting with surround projection a few years ago. (Google gives this: http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/bbcinternet/ ... deo_1.html). The interesting bit of the Microsoft patent is that they cut out the viewer(s) from the projection, but that's pretty trivial to implement if you have a kinect available and you can register it to the projector. This also isn't that novel: I've also seen a projection system that tracks the users in front of it (though this was to fill in gaps caused by the shadows, not to stop projecting on them).