Projection mapping (video mapping / spatial augmented reality) has made its way into numerous sporting events. Let’s take stock of the playing field and see what the future may bring for projection mapped sporting events.

Tennis

Back in 2010, 1024 Architecture projection mapped the French Masters series in Paris Bercy. The mapped it with the MadMapper projection mapping software (which they helped create). They focused on abstract visualizations.

Basketball

Qince Imaging mapped the court for the Washington Wizards in 2011.

Skiing

ENESS, a Melbourne Australia based agency, created a pretty bad-ass ski slope. They even tracked the skiers with an infrared camera, triggering visuals when the skiiers is directly over their omniprescent eye-ball. They built the whole thing with custom software. More details here.

Skateboarding

Arguably the best example is ENESS‘s follow-on interactive projection mapping of skateboard ramp in promotion of Disney’s Tron. Once again tracking riders using infrared cameras, they created an interactive skateboarding holodeck.

Here is some behind the scenes footage…

The Future

Obscura Digitial is at it again. (Well a year ago, but I had to put this up here…) Some of the acting is quite pained, but the concept is interesting. What would basketball look like in the Holodeck? How would a physical game be modified to incoporate the imaginary or virtual? Yet another interesting application of projection mapping

The coolest part is definitely at 3:45, when the court becomes a side-scrolling 8-bit platformer video game.

And finally. The re-invention of ping pong (table tennis).