Turning projectors interactive : Lightform

Imagine your living room with Every article about future of interactivity speaks extensively about virtual reality and augmented reality, every industry, from media to retail is prototyping one or the other form of these from urban centres to village corners. It was brought to the corners of India also, during the  national election campaign by BJP to bring omnipresence to Narendra Modi.

The breakthrough

However, existing virtual reality technologies use bulky headsets and can only be delivered to one person at a time, Lightform, a startup from San Francisco wants to create disruptions in this scene. Their technology is based on projected augmented reality or projection mapping as they call it. This technology has already amazed the world several times, it uses projectors or in some cases a single projector connected to a computer to create illusions on normal objects and environments.

The tech behind
This technology is also complicated as it requires several engineers to work on the mapping and setting up of projectors. Lightform aims to bring this technology to homes with their gaming console sized device that can be connected to a normal projector to recreate augmented reality without expert intervention.

This device is aided by a complex camera system that three-dimensionally maps the area and modifies the projection to suit the type and shape of the area to be projected. The device is small in size and can be easily connected to any type of projector.

According to the creators, the device can be of great use in retail shops, business establishments, class rooms and even homes.



The startup was founded by computational imaging and AR/VR experts Brett Jones, Raj Sodhi and Kevin Karsch. The product will be available for general consumers in few months. The founders, in an e-mail conversation with the author, hinted about launching the product in India shortly.