Ambient Light Sensible Handheld Display : Towards an Ukiyo-e Display that a Person Can Touch, Move, and Feel

Abstract

We have been developing visualization systems that allow people to appreciate artworks in the various environment they are in. This time in particular, we focus on Japanese woodblock print (ukiyo-e). People in the Edo period nurtured their artistic mind by holding ukiyo-e prints in their hands and enjoying them under various light conditions. With this in mind, we have developed a handheld display system that can display a piece of ukiyo-e following the change of ambient light in real-time. The purpose of this attempt is to identify what it means for a person to appreciate art of ukiyo-e in the natural environment. This paper describes the system using a display and an ambient light sensing device, and a color transform based on the spectral digitized data of the picture. It also reports the results of a preliminary test using a tablet PC-based simplified version for proof-of-concept.