Methods of automatic seamless tiling for rapid deployment of projection displays
A large seamless display that could be set up rapidly, operated effectively, and moved quickly would be a great value to the military. Such a display system would be even more beneficial if it consisted entirely of easily available, commercial, off-the-shelf components, not dependent on a single supplier. We have designed a seamlessly tiled projection system to meet these needs. The system consists entirely of easily available, commercial, off-the-shelf equipment. We created software that records the location of projected images as detected by a digital camera, computes the movements necessary to align the images, and drives the projection lenses to align the seamlessly tiled display. We developed a method for rapid mechanical mounting of the projectors and camera. We chose commercial folding stands and a mirror-based alignment method that accelerated the mechanical setup. In field trials, our prototype was operational within one-half hour of opening the shipping cases.
