ST Engineering Antycip (formerly known as Antycip Simulation) has used warp and blend software solutions on customer projects in France, Italy the UK, and across the globe. Here you can find out about the warp and blend software solutions that we offer
What is a warp and blend software solution?
A warp and blend software solution is the taking of images projected by multiple projectors and correcting them so that they appear as one seamless image. For example, taking a series of landscape images in a panorama for a flight simulator, each one being projected by a single projector, and combining and correcting them so that the viewer sees one seamless image of the whole landscape. Blending is the overlapping, and fading of one projected image into another, at the joining edges, and combining of these multiple images into one seamless image. Sometimes this is called projector edge blending. Warping is the shaping adjustment of those images for the nature of the surface they are being projected onto, which could have imperfections, or by design be convex or concave, such as a dome. Warping may also be needed in both single and multiple projector designs where the image must be corrected due to things like the angle of the projector(s) to the screen. Combined, these two techniques are a warp and blend solution.How does a warp and blend software solution work?
Although different warp and blend software manufacturers use proprietary methods to create their own warp and blend solution, the basics are somewhat common: The software takes inputs of the projectors coverage of the screen, via one or more cameras scanning the projection screen, plus parameters about the screen, and using a series of algorithms distorts the images being projected by each projector so that a correctly combined seamless single image is presented to the viewer. While the software makes this a mostly automated process, warp and blend solution experts, such as Antycip's technicians, are needed to set up the camera correctly, run the software’s initial warp and blend inputs and calculations, and to sometimes make small manual adjustments towards the end of the process, when the trained human eye sees something that the software and camera may not.What are the uses and applications for warp and blend software solutions?
Warp and blend software is used in most, if not all, of the multiple projection installations that Antycip carries out, and in those single projection solutions where the angle of the projector to the screen isn’t optimal and a warping solution is required to provide a correct image. These installations have included VR CAVES, simulators, control rooms, research, analysis and training solutions for a wide range of customers and disciplines, including;- Air traffic control
- Architecture and the arts
- Automotive industry
- Aviation and aerospace
- Defence and the armed forces
- Engineering and design
- Manufacturing
- Motorsport teams
- Oil and gas industries
- Retailers
- University research departments
