Multi-Projektor-Panoramadisplay

About the project

In today's computer applications, three-dimensional scenes are presented mostly on small planar screens. The observers don't get a realistic spatial impression, because they can see only a very small part of the scene. The project presented here only uses standard components such as PCs and data projectors to build an inexpensive but powerful panoramic display.

The display consists of six networked computers that drive circular arranged projectors to create a wide angle field of view of up to 270 degrees. The initial work began in 2002 with funding from the former Ministry for Education, Science and Research of North Rhine-Westphalia for the project "Virtual shuttle".

In summer 2009, the project was moved ahead by the thesis of the computer science student Peter Eisenlohr. By means of the developed panoramic display it is now possible to dive into Google Earth-generated scenery and make virtual travels by GE more appealing. In the following short movie you will get an overview how the problems related to a multi projector display have been solved. One of the challenges we attacked was the automatic calibration of geometrical distortions due to the curvature of the canvas. Besides Google Earth, also the popular flight simulator X-plane runs on the panoramic display and allows for an immersive flight experience.

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Secretary's Office

"Large LCD and Plasma screens are today, tomorrow we might be immersed in realtime movies, TV, games, video conferencing, graphical, scientific, and medical applications. Panoramic displays correspond more naturally to our seeing than traditional flat screens," dares Prof. Dr. Wolfram Schiffmann the prospects for the not too distant future... read more about the panoramic display (FernUni News, in german)