Developing Projection Mapping Workflows

Question:

What is an approachable workflow for MIAD students looking to develop real time, projection mapped, interactive environments?

Inquiry Length:

Standard, 15 weeks

Why this Question is Important

Interactive projection mapping is a compelling skillset that has the potential of expanding the career pathways for all of MIAD’s majors. However, there isn’t a clear understanding across the college of what skills, beyond what is already taught in curriculum, are needed to engage in the design and implement immersive, interactive environments.

Criteria for Successful Submission

Step by step tutorial

A successful submission for this inquiry would be in the form of a step by step tutorial that could be used by a MIAD student to produce an interactive, projection mapped environment or object that contains the following elements:

• Between one and three inputs into the installation used to trigger the interaction. This could be a physical sensor, input via locally networked data, or real time information scraped from the internet
• The use of single projector to display the imagery
• Effective surface alignment between the projected image and a physical object
• The projected image should be altered in real time based on the input provided
• The tutorial should be accessible to an ambitious MIAD student that has already developed a solid understanding of digital content creation in general (Image and video editing, camera and microphone usage, 3D modeling, etc)

Supplemental Information

In a separate document from the tutorial, include an analysis of the process used to develop the tutorial which addresses the following.

• An explanation of why specific tools, platforms and techniques were chosen - paying particular attention to the following
  • Are they tools commonly used in industry?
  • How difficult are they to learn?
  • Do they require proprietary software and / or hardware?
  • Is there an active online network of support / shared knowledge around these tools?
• Extensive documentation of the research process
• A bibliography of resources accessed to develop this workflow