Asynchronous camera/projector system for video segmentation

1. An asynchronous camera/projector system, comprising:

a projection screen, having a key color;

a projector, oriented to provide a sequenced background image to the screen;

a camera, located in front of the screen, oriented to capture a sequenced image of the screen and a real object positioned in front of the screen, the camera and projector operating out of phase, so that the camera does not record the background image; and

wherein the projection screen is a rear projection screen, and the projector and camera are located on and oriented toward opposite sides of the screen.

2. A system in accordance with claim 1 , further comprising a chroma key processor, configured to replace portions of the camera image having the key color with the background image.

3. A system in accordance with claim 1 , wherein the camera and projector are chromatically asynchronous.

4. A system in accordance with claim 3 , wherein the camera and projector each include a rotating color wheel having corresponding color filter segments, the rotation of the color wheel of the projector being synchronized and out of phase with the rotation of the color wheel of the camera.

5. A system in accordance with claim 1 , wherein the camera and projector are temporally asynchronous.

6. A system in accordance with claim 1 , wherein camera and projector are spatially asynchronous.

7. A video segmentation system, comprising:

a chroma key screen, having a key color;

a background image processor, configured to produce a sequenced background video image;

a projector, interconnected to the background image processor and oriented to project a sequenced real background image to the screen;

a camera, oriented to capture a sequenced image of the screen and a real object positioned in front of the screen;

a chroma key processor, interconnected to the camera and the background image processor, configured to replace portions of the camera image having the key color with the background image, the camera and projector operating in synchronization, but out of phase, whereby the real background image is visible to a person viewing the screen but is not visible to the camera; and

wherein the camera and projector are chromatically asynchronous, and the camera and projector each include a rotating color wheel having corresponding color filter segments, the rotation of the color wheel of the projector being synchronized and out of phase with the rotation of the color wheel of the camera.

8. A video segmentation system in accordance with claim 7 , wherein the screen is a rear projection screen and the projector is located behind the screen, and the camera is located in front of the screen.

9. A video segmentation system in accordance with claim 7 , wherein the color wheels of the projector and camera each include red, green, and blue filter segments.

10. A video segmentation system in accordance with claim 7 , wherein the camera and projector are located on and oriented toward a common side of the screen.

11. A method for producing a composite image, comprising the steps of:

a. sequentially projecting a background image to a projection surface having a key color;

b. sequentially recording a foreground image of the projection surface and an object positioned in front of the projection surface at a common rate but out of phase with the sequential projection, such that the foreground image includes substantially no part of the background image; and

c. combining the background image with the foreground image using a chroma key processor, whereby the background image is visible to a person viewing the projection surface, wherein the step of sequentially projecting the background image comprises projecting sequential color component images, and the step of sequentially recording the foreground image comprises recording sequential color component images, the sequence of the background image being out of phase with the color sequence of the foreground image.

12. A method in accordance with claim 11 , wherein the projection surface comprises a rear projection screen and the step of projecting the background image comprises projecting the background image to a rear surface of the screen, and the step of recording the foreground image comprises recording an image from a viewpoint oriented toward a front surface of the screen.

13. A method in accordance with claim 11 , wherein the step of projecting the background image comprises projecting the background image to a front of the projection surface, and the step of recording the foreground image comprises recording an image from a viewpoint oriented toward the front of the projection surface.

14. An asynchronous camera/projector system, comprising:

a projection screen, having a key color;

a projector, oriented to provide a sequenced background image to the screen;

a camera, located in front of the screen, oriented to capture a sequenced image of the screen and a real object positioned in front of the screen, the camera and projector operating out of phase, so that the camera does not record the background image; and

wherein the camera and projector each include a rotating color wheel having corresponding color filter segments, the rotation of the color wheel of the projector being synchronized and out of phase with the rotation of the color wheel of the camera.

15. An asynchronous camera/projector system, comprising:

a projection screen, having a key color;

a projector, oriented to provide a sequenced background image to the screen;

a camera, located in front of the screen, oriented to capture a sequenced image of the screen and a real object positioned in front of the screen, the camera and projector operating out of phase, so that the camera does not record the background image; and

wherein the projector and camera are located on and oriented toward a common side of the screen, and wherein the projector is positioned with a high skew angle relative to the screen and a viewpoint of the camera.

16. A system in accordance with claim 15 , further comprising multiple projectors, each positioned with a high skew angle relative to the screen and a viewpoint of the camera, each projector configured to project the background image to a common location on the screen.