Making a curved rear projection screen

Thought it would cool to be able to have my videos feel a bit more immersive.

Decided to try a curved screen.

To avoid the complication of preventing the casting of a silhouette of the viewer I went with rear projection. I could also, avoid a silhouette by using a short throw projector. Mine would do the trick, but I thought it would be interesting to make something that did not require a short-throw, given that short-throw projectors are a bit more pricey than the typical projector. It seems nice to make something that is more easily obtainable by the general public that doesn't horde neat electronic toys.

The screen is a $20 cloth rear / front projection screen. The screen is kept fairly taunt by the wait of the lower PVC and the screen is held in place with sticky-sided velcro.

Millumin Projection Mapping software is being used to bend the image to match the curve and to compensate for the distortion.

• I used PVC because it is light and easily obtained at a low price.

• I also, discovered that it has the added benefit of being able to be bent using boiling water, hot sand, or steam.

• By partially closing one end of the pipe to slow the boiling water from leaving the pipe too quickly the pipe was able to heat up and become fairly flexible.

• After the pipe cooled it stayed in the curved shape.

• With this narrow PVC one pot of boiling water was more than enough for each pipe.

• To make adjustments to the curves I just added boiling water again.