Real-Time Tracking and Projection Mapping

Real-Time Tracking and Projection Mapping

Panasonic’s advanced laser technology and motion tracking sensors combine to create a real-time tracking projection mapping experience that blurs the line between real and unreal.

Breathtaking experiences

Panasonic’s real-time tracking and projection mapping is an interactive and immersive media display. The technology allows theme parks, entertainment venues, performing artists and global events like the Olympics to create mesmerizing and absorbing experiences using projected imagery. The technique uses high-speed projectors that track markers in real time, enveloping venue guests in rich, dynamic imagery or augmenting a dramatic stage performance by professional talent.

How it works

The experience is constructed using Panasonic’s high-speed projector, an infrared ray camera for tracking, and an infrared illuminator. To create the experience, designers and engineers rely on high speed sensing and high-speed projection technology. It all starts with a reflective fabric marker attached to an object that can be detected 1,000 times per second. The object with reflective fabric is paired with a special projector that boasts a high recognition speed of 0.001 seconds. The projector also has a very fast shooting speed. The fast recognition, shooting and object sensing takes only 0.0016 seconds. In other words, from tracking the object to showing it occurs faster than the blink of an eye. For the viewer, the result is a sense of real-time engagement. Panasonic collaborates with the Moment Factory, a multimedia entertainment studio in Canada, to develop unique content using real-time tracking and projection mapping.

Delivering a singular story

This pioneering approach blurs the line between real and unreal, and that’s important for brands seeking to deliver a singular story in a world of serious competition for a viewer’s attention. At any given time, brand storytelling vies for attention with always-on mobile devices, digital signage that permeates public environments, as well as the high-tech world of sensory marketing.

Incredibly interesting work is occurring as cinema and theme park efforts converge, informed by a deep understanding of consumer behavior and advanced imaging technology. In both Hollywood style film design and in theme parks, sets used to be purely physical construction. That evolved into set pieces with limited projection. Now it is largely sophisticated projection imaging with some set pieces. It’s where the science of imaging meets the psychology of imaging. When it’s done well in the physical environments of entertainment, you see technology become magic.