OREANDA-NEWS. NTT (Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo; Hiroo Unoura, CEO) has developed a new light projection technique named ‘HenGenTou’(Deformation Lamps), which can add a variety of realistic movement impressions to static objects. Based on an illusion-based animation technique, HenGenTou produces completely novel visual experiences wherein physically static objects appear to move, deform, or flutter. Given its ability to provide original dynamic impressions with traditional printed photos, painted pictures and written texts, HenGenTou has applications in a wide range of fields, including advertising, interior design, art, and entertainment.

Background

“What is happening? Trees in a landscape oil painting are fluttering in the wind, and a man in a portrait suddenly starts speaking. This cannot be real.” What if there were some way to produce such fantastic experiences.

A promising method may be projection mapping, a cutting-edge technology that can effectively changes visual impressions of a real object, by way of projecting a well-designed pattern onto the object’s surface as a screen. Conventional projection mapping techniques, however, cannot produce movements of static objects per se, since they “paint” a new color and texture on the object’s surface without preserving the original surface’s appearance. In addition, although the goal of conventional projection mapping is to produce a physically correct image on the object’s surface, it seems theoretically impossible to make a static picture move in a physically correct way only by image projection.

Achievement

NTT Communication Science Laboratories has developed a novel type of projection mapping named ‘HenGenTou’ (Deformation Lamps). HenGenTou can add a variety of dynamic impressions ranging from natural liquid flows to facial expressions to a printed image or other static materials. This capability is a result of our long-term scientific research on human information processing, in particular visual processing for natural movements.

HenGenTou makes use of visual illusions to add a movie-like dynamic appearance to a two-dimensional (2D) static object, such as fluttering flames and blowing wind. It can apparently do this even for three-dimensional (3D) objects, although the viewing condition is restricted.

Future plan

Since HenGenTou can broaden the expressiveness and increase the salience of almost any static object, it will provide a new methodology for image expression in a wide range of fields.