Abstract
This paper presents a novel visualization method of thermal image through projection-based mixed reality (MR) technologies. In the proposed method, geometrically adjusted and photometrically compensated projection light of thermal image is optically superimposed onto a real object. Users can intuitively recognize temperature distribution of the object since it is appeared onto the object itself in real space, not a two dimensional monitor. When the temperature distribution information of the object is displayed on a monitor, users often have to look the monitor and the object scene alternately to obtain geometrical relations between the thermal image and the object. This kind of spatial seam between a display space (a monitor) and an object space (a real space) causes psychological difficulty in usability. To unify these two spaces seamlessly, the authors believe that the spatial consistency is the key for realizing the user's intuitive understanding of the object's temperature distribution.
