A new gaming platform using the Kinect? Artist Eric Mika’s überbeamer is a hand-held, spatially aware augmented reality projection system and a means of making any surface writeable.
The überbeamer takes the basic premise of augmented reality – the mediation of a physical environment via an overlay of digital information – and expands upon it by introducing a new, universal, and direct means of interacting with a space. Instead of using a small screen as a window to an augmented world, the überbeamer merges the information layer and the surface layer by using a projector to draw content directly onto any surface.
By storing a three-dimensional model of the environment that it’s in, the überbeamer knows where you are relative to where you’ve been. If you mark a spot on one wall, that same mark will exist when you revisit the wall with the projector’s throw.