Inside Designer: Automating projection calibration with our new OmniCal RigCheck API

Projection mapping plays a critical role in location-based experiences thanks to its ability to map content onto complex geometries such as building facades and curved structures. It often takes a bank of projectors that need to be perfectly calibrated at all times to deliver a consistent, seamlessly-blended result.

That’s exactly why we developed the new RigCheck API for our OmniCal camera-based calibration system. This is a powerful update built to simplify calibration workflows for AV teams and video operators.

Let’s take a look at what it does and how it unlocks new capabilities for high-precision projection installations, especially for those who aren’t experienced with Disguise workflows.

The challenge: Keeping projections precise without manual intervention

Projector calibration is essential in ensuring the final output accurately matches the surface, and that’s where OmniCal comes in.

OmniCal captures images of the physical space, and constructs a 3D representation of the projection surface in our Designer software as a points cloud. OmniCal then calculates both the camera and projector positioning within the physical space, with the points cloud used to check for calibration errors in pixels for each project. 

The RigCheck workflow within OmniCal enables a user to recalibrate and compare live camera images to those from a previous capture to check whether the OmniCal cameras or projection surfaces have moved. 

In long-running installations like museums and themed attractions, those carefully calibrated projectors may shift over time due to environmental vibrations or maintenance. And recalibration can’t always wait for a trained Disguise operator to be on site.

The solution: a RigCheck API for automated recalibration

To solve this, we’ve created the RigCheck API for OmniCal - a new way to trigger OmniCal recalibrations automatically from a third-party system or application.

During system commissioning, an operator can configure the RigCheck API to be triggered automatically at a predefined point in time from a show controller or dedicated application. This is particularly relevant for those who may not have direct experience using Disguise, as the API enables this step to be triggered from a familiar interface.

This marks a major step forward in making OmniCal more accessible for non-Disguise users, and its existing workflow more repeatable.

The new RigCheck API workflow follows these three key steps:

1. A new RigCheck capture, calibration and alignment is triggered from an API endpoint, so that the user can complete it from a third-party system
2. It evaluates the success of the completed recalibration against a user-defined score to easily verify projection accuracy over time.
3. Finally, it cleans up old RigCheck results that are not in use.

An additional OmniCal workflow improvement made as part of this development was to create an automatic check to detect whether any OmniCal cameras are out of focus during capture. This was identified by users as a major reason for failed RigCheck captures, so we have enabled users to set pre-defined thresholds during the programming workflow to enable better detection if the OmniCal cameras are out of focus. 

Successfully piloted at Top of the Rock

We originally developed the RigCheck API for the Top of the Rock visitor attraction in New York City, working alongside The Hettema Group (THG), The Fury, PNM Designs, and Electrosonic. The project needed a fully automated calibration workflow, one that could run reliably without technical supervision, even with vibrations from the building and heavy foot traffic.

By making recalibrations repeatable and easy to manage, we’ve ensured the system can self-correct without downtime and technical intervention. 

“We knew we needed a robust technical solution to ensure the projection model could run smoothly for up to 15 hours a day," said Phil Hettema, Founder and CEO of THG. "Disguise worked with us to develop a custom auto-calibration solution, overcoming several technical challenges. Their expertise was critical for the model’s ongoing performance. Thanks to their collaboration, we successfully launched a visually captivating and operationally reliable feature in the Welcome Gallery, orienting guests to the entire Rockefeller Center complex."

Learn more about the Top of the Rock projection experience

Available soon!

The RigCheck API will be released in Designer soon. If you would like to check it out in pre-release, contact our product team at product-team@disguise.one