Projection Stabilizing Method for Palmtop Display with Wearable Projector

Wearable projectors have been extensively studied with a focus on miniaturization. However, stabilization of the projected images is critical, for otherwise the information cannot be read when the user walks or runs. This paper introduces two methods of stabilization for images projected on the user’s hand: optical stabilization and gyroscopic stabilization. We conducted an experiment to quantitatively evaluate the stability achieved using both methods. The results show that both achieve sufficient stabilization while the user is walking. However, gyroscopic stabilization is more effective against large-impulse vibrations caused by footfalls. Finally, we propose an algorithm that switches between these two methods depending on the degree of vibration as measured by an accelerometer.