In SMALLab, we combine color tracking and IR tracking to define a point in physical space. Theoretically speaking, we are able to track as many points as we want and identify each of them as an unique point since there are 255X255X255 colors. In reality, the light is uneven in the space, we have to deal with shades, color gets darker when it’s farther away from the cameras, right now we are able to track up to three stable points at the same time using orange, green, and blue, each paired up with IR.
When I was visiting Sony Explora Science museum in Odaiba, Tokyo. I saw this installation that teaches kids how cellphone tower works and it got me thinking, there might be a chance we can track up to four or more colors. The installation uses typical 1 projector and 1 camera setup on top. The camera tracks four different colors, green, red, blue, and purple. The color cube in the picture below has a button that can switch in between four colors. This might came out of an experiment for Sony Playstation 3’s new controller. Anyway, the installation was laggy but the color tracking part works perfectly, never missed a color when I was there.
SMALLab Colors:
Sony Museum Installation:
These two spectrums show that there is room for Smallab to expand the choices of color wider.