Head Light

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HeadLight : a wearable wide-angle projector system for Egocentric visual augmentation.

Concept

Superception (Super + perception) is a research framework that uses computer technologies to intervene in the process of human perception and to connect multiple senses together. One of these research projects, “HeadLight" is a system that allows humans to experience the perceptual world of nonhuman species through personal projection mapping.

Technologies have continued to enhance human perceptual abilities. At the same time, it is worth noting that different species with their own perceptual abilities build their subjective perceptual worlds different from that of humans. Hence, the perceptual abilities of these species are different from the abilities possessed by the humans. So, how we could we integrate bring perceptual abilities of various creatures to human beings? “Head Light” aims to expand the human perception by visually reproducing perceptive abilities and sensations of various species by means of wearable projectors

Head Light Technology

​​​​HeadLight consists of a laser source small project with a wide conversion lens, a headphone and a pose tracker.

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HeadLight has a fish-eye conversion lens on the projector which enables much wider projection image. However, the conversion lens produces strong distortion in the projected image with pincushion shape. The Headlight system compensates this distortion based on a fisheye model distortion. Therefore, Headlight enables wide angle visual projection from the point of view of user up to 131 degree in diagonal angle, minimum approx. 105 deg. horizontal and 55 deg. vertical, which covers a large field of view of human.

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In Headlight system, the three-dimensional virtual space that is consistent with the physical environment is rendered with a virtual camera based on tracking information of the device. By processing inverse correction of the lens distortion and projecting the rendered image from the projector, Headlight performs consistent visual augmentation in the real world.

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​​By using three-dimensional data of the physical environment as the source of the projected video of the system, Headlight can project computer graphics aligned with the physical environment the user is watching. In this projection mapping mode, the projected image appears to be existed on the physical surface.

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​​​In addition, since the Headlight system can generate image synchronously with one’s head movement, motion parallax can be generated by the change of the projected image
Due to the perception of depth caused by this moving parallax, the user feels that a virtual object exists in front of or behind the surface regardless of the physical arrangement of the actual projection plane.

Head Light to feel perceptual world of other species

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​In order to experience the potential sensory world, we built the exhibition system with HeadLight technology. Immersive visual experience are designed from inspiration of perceptual abilities of other species including “Butterfly”, “Bat” and “Mosquito” and more.

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​​​For instance, butterflies see the world through different color perception, thus they might perceive the world in totally different colors. As another example. bats use sounds to know the distance between them and the surroundings, which is called echo location, Thus they can recognize the space even even in complete darkness. then we visualized the sense of sound propagation in the complete dark space. Other scenarios include “seeing the aerodynamics” , “having X-ray vision” and “malleable sense of time”.​

​Our lives and the environment are designed based on human perceptual abilities. However, at the same time, in this real world there are a wide variety of species with different sensory abilities. If human beings were able to have their perceptual abilities using technology, I believe that we human will perceive the real world from a new perspective.​

Collaboration with
Visual System - Satoru Higa, Takuto Usami
Sound Design - Shotaro Hirata
Hardware design - Tetsuya Konishi

Click here SXSW2018
Related Website Superception

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