Ok, so I'm done with my 15" first trial proj, and it worked perfectly. I'd have posted a plog for it, but I used the standard flat design, and I had nothing new to offer the community.
However, now that I have a working proj, I'm off to my next project. I'm going to make the table I refered to a few months ago.
So... Here's an image of what I'm aiming to achieve.
Click to view attachment
Sorry for the crappy image, I was rushed.
Anyway, the light bounces off the mirror, and hits the bottom of the glass in the middle of the table.
The glass has a rear projection screen on the bottom.

I'll be using a Dell 1072FP for the LCD, along with the short throw lens (to save space).

So, if anyone has any comments, please contribute.

J/W, Why do you want to do this? Wont using the table obstruct the view of the image?

Depends on what you're projecting, I suppose.

If you're doing a giant grid/hex map, I could see it being quite useful.

My only question is how will the image be viewed? I don't see how looking up at the ceiling or down at the table will be comfortable, compared to looking straight ahead.

Or, perhaps your diagram doesn't offer enough insight as to what you're hoping to accomplish.

In other words.................I'm lost

I reckon Entropy has it, create a "map" on a pc,project it onto the table,use it for warhammer etc.The ultimate,ever changing,customiseable gaming surface,ultra cool!!

WOW!!! I think that’s a great idea. It will be a little challenging to get the image to expand fast enough to take up the whole table. Are you going to have frosted glass so that you can see the image? The short throw lens is a good idea too but im not sure if you can still expand it fast enough. I no they are selling short throw lenses through Edmund Scientifics for around 10 bucks. I bought 2. They were meant to be used in the rear projection tv's. They didn’t work for me because it expanded the image to fast but it might work for you.
GOOD LUCK!!!

Ahhh warhammer.... haven't played it years. Anyone checked out Dawn of War for the PC? Awwwwwwwesome...

I could see this table coming in handy if you were in construction & had plans on the computer that you wanted to view a large size of instead of printing it out.
(I'm a construction estimator).

Yes, this is for the projection of maps. Actually, I'm planning on using it for Role Playing Games, as my miniature playing days are long over.
Basicly, throughout my gaming life I've longed for an interactive and intuitive way to present maps to my players. Because while I have faith in my abilities as a GM to describe a space, this will allow so much more.
I like Sci Fi games most of all, and this will allow me to display the following two programs to my players as if they were interactive maps.
http://www.shatters.net/celestia/
http://worldwind.arc.nasa.gov/

For fantasy or modern settings I can use select portions of WorldWind to show large scale maps of the player's world, and for city / town / building plans I have several 3d apps I use every day. I can build almost anything I want rather quickly. It won't be movie quality graphics, but it will show the player exactly where they are. It will say the 1000 words I'd rather spend on the rest of the game, like the characters.

Clamps

very interesting, like to know more.

you can take my basic rearprojection tv design and lay it down, check it out and see if anything is useful for you....

http://www.lumenlab.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=1784

Joe

Yeah, that's kinda what I was thinking of, except I was going to have it feel more like a table that an TV. But that's just asthetics.
As far as the physical design goes, I'm aiming to create a design that I can store away for the 6 days a week I'm not gaming. It will be a table with removable / foldup legs and a solid transparent insert. We'll call that the screen. So the screen has some kind of rear-projection material on it (still shopping, cheap recomendations welcome).
The projector will be a standard 17" straight design, cause I know it and I can't see a reason not to use it. 6 days a week it will live on a little wheeled trolley that will let me move it to the viewing position in my bedroom / loungeroom / gaming room. Yes, I have limited space. Speakers are going to be a problem.
Come Saturday, the proj gets placed on the floor in front of the mirror and below the table. Bingo! Instant Stellar Cartography Chamber. If I need more throw I suppose I can use 2 more mirrors, but I'd rather not.
For now I'm going to keep it simple, so that I can get the damn thing working. Since I have a 15" to test on, I'm going to get the table working first, then upgrade the projector to the 17" Dell I just bought. Oh my god is that a pretty screen!

Eventual plans include-
Running a dual monitor graphics card to the projector. The second port on the card is for the GM ONLY monitor, from which he can control what the others see, and still have a workspace for himself. NVidia's drives make all kinds of gymnastics possible with 2 monitors, so I'm sure I can get an arrangment that will work.
Adding a PC and monitor for each player, so they can all have their own station. This is real pie-in-the-sky stuff, cause there's a couple of mouse driver issues I have to work out, but my coder geek friends assure me it's doable.

I hope that makes things a little more clear. I'm going to post some more images in a couple of days. I promise things will be mroe easy to understand then.

clamps:

I understand now what you are going for, what a fantastic idea. Add some dry erase pens to draw on the glass surface, perhaps some miniatures...Man, you could take over the planet with this thing.

PLEASE post some pics on progress and when you complete this project!

Thanks very much. I'm glad the idea makes sense to someone other than myself.

I have a question for anyone reading this. In my first post in this plog I pointed at 2 programs that I will be using to provide visuals of Space and Earth. I also mentioned that I can do cities and wilderness with 3d apps. However, I'd love a faster way to mock up these environments. They don't have to have hugely intereactive functions or AIs or anything. I just need a way to build environments and control a camera.
I know there are several game tools out there that do this kind of stuff, I was just hoping someong out there has used one and can recomend it.

So... the question is, what's a good app / game tool for rapidly creating wilderness / fantasy / city internals and externals?