We present the first distributed paradigm for multiple users to interact simultaneously with large tiled rear projection display walls. Unlike earlier works, our paradigm allows easy scalability across different applications, interaction modalities, displays and users. The novelty of the design lies in its distributed nature allowing well-compartmented, application independent, and application specific modules. This enables adapting to different 2D applications and interaction modalities easily by changing a few application specific modules. We demonstrate four challenging 2D applications on a nine projector display to demonstrate the application scalability of our method: map visualization, virtual graffiti, virtual bulletin board and an emergency management system. We demonstrate the scalability of our method to multiple interaction modalities by showing both gesture-based and laser-based user interfaces. Finally, we improve earlier distributed methods to register multiple projectors. Previous works need multiple patterns to identify the neighbors, the configuration of the display and the registration across multiple projectors in logarithmic time with respect to the number of projectors in the display. We propose a new approach that achieves this using a single pattern based on specially augmented QR codes in constant time. Further, previous distributed registration algorithms are prone to large misregistrations. We propose a novel radially cascading geometric registration technique that yields significantly better accuracy. Thus, our improvements allow a significantly more efficient and accurate technique for distributed self-registration of multi-projector display walls.

This article approaches the way how to think about collaboration with pervasive technology in a new way. It introduces ambient media as new form of media, where the media as such is linked to physical worlds, and smartly aggregated rather than generated with a push or pull model. Collaboration between human man and technology becomes a issue of collaboration, rather than a question of human-computer interaction. As far user contributed content was mostly seen as process, where consumers contribute to online Web forums or create their own videos and upload it to YouTube. The user actively contributes and collaborates to create the content of the media. However, pervasive technology enables much more: pervasive technology allows implicit collaboration, thus the collection of consumer data passively and aggregate the content of the media. One example is the open source platform Portable Personality (P2), whose goal is to generate a personality profile of the implicit collected contextual information. P2 will offer the possibility of personality profiles, rather than simple usage history information or sensor data input. Within the context of this article, the notion of ambient media is introduced. As a practical example to underline the new way of thinking about media, P2 is introduced and the underlying principles explained.