Patent ID: 7134080

Claim:
A user-following interface system comprising: one or more projectors adapted to project one or more images onto one or more selected surfaces in a real environment, wherein the one or more selected surfaces are selected from a plurality of surfaces; a user tracking module adapted to track positions of one or more users in the environment; and a controller coupled to the one or more projectors and the user tracking module, the controller adapted to select the one or more surfaces based on the positions of the one or more users in the real environment, and to provide information to the one or more projectors suitable for allowing the one or more projectors to project the one or more images onto the one or more selected surfaces, wherein a selected surface comprises a display area and wherein the controller is further adapted to select a display area for an image by: mapping the position and orientation of a selected user into a three-dimensional environment model; determining a volume, in the three-dimensional model, that is viewable by the selected user; determining a set of displayable surfaces in the viewable volume; determining available display areas on each surface; determining a distance from a head of the selected user to a center of an available display area; eliminating available display areas that are occluded by the user to create remaining display areas; and selecting one of the remaining display areas, within the viewable volume, that is closest to the selected user while being approximately orthogonal to a viewing direction of the selected user.