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December 17, 2007
An Interview with...Xiang Cao
After introducing the amazing project by the University of Toronto about the hand-held projection of multi-user information spaces, we are really glad to share some opinions with Xiang Cao, one of the researcher behind the project.
So dont waste your time and start reading what he told us 
1 - Where the proect come from ? What have been your inspirations ?
This is a university research project. It is also part of my PhD thesis in progress, which investigate multiple aspects of handheld projector interaction. There have beena few previous research works on handheld projectors, which you can find in the references section of my paper.
2 - How long it takes to reach the prototype phase from the begingin of the project ?
We started the research on handheld projectors in 2005. Again, the video is only a part of the overall research project, which covers design, evaluation, theories and social impacts of handheld projector usage for both single and multiple users.
3 - How do u think hand-help project could help and integrate with tangible user interfaces ?
We currently have not explored Tangible UI in this setting. However, the ability to project interface/information on whatever physical environment/object could help creating tangible UI using ordinary objects.
4 - Did u need to write a propetary operating system ? Which are the technologies behind your projects ?
Our research focuses on the interaction rather the technology. Were using a computer-vision-based motion tracking system to provide position & orientation of the projector, and process the projected image accordingly to create the experience. It is a prototype to demonstrate the interactions rather than a fully-functional product. More details is in this paper:
http://www.cs.toronto.edu/~caox/uist2006_handheldprojector.pdf
5 - Now, it seems to me that the hand-held projector is quite "big and not so user friendly. How do you think the hand-held device could be improved ? Did u also tested or thought about the usage of an head-held projection device ?
The projector we use to prototype is released by Mitsubishi in 2005. Several companies are developing laser projectors of much smaller sizes (e.g. Microvision, Symbol), which are likely to be in market soon. These would enable actually integrating the projector into current cell phones or PDAs.
6 - How do u interact with the net ? I mean...how people could share an information space, even they are not in the same physical space ?
Good question. Supposedly all information displayed by the projector can be pulled from the web. To support a more "literal sharing of information spaces remotely, we could imagine mapping a wall in one place to a wall in another place. This is something we plan to explore in the future.
7 - I just got the online available paper, but if we would like to know more...where we can have a look ?
My papers are probably the best resources of the research:
http://www.cs.toronto.edu/~caox/uist2006_handheldprojector.pdf
http://www.cs.toronto.edu/~caox/uist2007_multiprojectors.pdf
http://www.mentegrafica.it/blog/2007/12/17/an-interview-withxiang-cao/
Posted by InfoVis at December 17, 2007 8:16 AM
