Here’s another interesting project from Microsoft Research, blurring the lines between the physical and digital worlds using a Kinect sensor and a technology more commonly found in nightclubs.
They call it Beamatron. It uses the Kinect Fusion technology to create a 3D model of a room, and then projects objects into the real version of that space using the type of pan-tilt moving head that’s a fixture in many clubs.
The cool part is that the 3D model allows the virtual object to maneuver around the room within the constraints of the physical world.
In the video above, for example, a projected toy car drives up and around a ramp and isn’t able to drive past an obstacle in the floor, because its physics model is going by the rules of the physical world, based on the data from the Kinect Fusion scan.
Microsoft’s Steve Clayton has more on the technology here.