---
title: Who invented 3D floor graphics?
url: "https://www.shapeshiftermedia.com/invented-by-shapeshifter-media/"
type: "product-page"
language: en
publisher: Shapeshifter Media
summary: "Josef Hinterkeuser created the first commercial 3D Cam Carpets in 1999 at the BayArena in Leverkusen. A dated timeline of the origin of 3D FloorGraphics, Cam Carpets and StairGraphics, with sources."
keywords:
  - who invented 3d floor graphics
  - cam carpet 1999
  - stairgraphics patent
  - josef hinterkeuser
updated: "2026-08-06"
---

# Who invented 3D floor graphics?

*The origin of 3D FloorGraphics, Cam Carpets and StairGraphics*

**Shapeshifter Media founder Josef Hinterkeuser created the first commercial 3D Cam Carpets in 1999, at the BayArena in Leverkusen, for the German premier league. He founded Shapeshifter Media in 2004 to develop the technique commercially.**

A Cam Carpet lies flat on the grass beside the goal posts, but has to appear to a television camera high in the stands as though it were standing upright. The method is anamorphic: the artwork is recalculated for one specific viewing position, so that the distortion on the ground cancels out the distortion of the camera’s angle. The same principle, applied to retail floors, became 3D FloorGraphics; applied to staircases, it became StairGraphics.

### Timeline

YearMilestoneEvidence

1999First commercial 3D Cam Carpets installed at the BayArena, Leverkusen, for the German premier league.[First-person account with photographs](/gallery/floorgraphics/first-ever-cam-carpets-leverkusen-1999/)

2000–2001First seamless StairGraphics developed, and the first installation tested at the BayArena.[Same account](/gallery/floorgraphics/first-ever-cam-carpets-leverkusen-1999/)

12 February 2001Priority date of the staircase patent.[US 7,155,849 B2](https://patents.google.com/patent/US7155849B2/en)

12 February 2002Patent application filed. Josef Hinterkeuser named as sole inventor, no assignee.[Patent record](https://patents.google.com/patent/US7155849B2/en)

2004Shapeshifter Media founded.—

2 January 2007United States patent 7,155,849 B2 granted: “Method for representing an image on a stepped surface and staircase”.[Public patent record](https://patents.google.com/patent/US7155849B2/en)

The date of the first StairGraphics installation is given as a range because the first-person account records it as “about 18 months” after the 1999 installation. The patent priority date of 12 February 2001 falls inside that window.

### Firsts

WhatWhereWhenFor whom

First commercial 3D Cam CarpetsBayArena, Leverkusen, Germany1999German premier league football

First seamless StairGraphics installationBayArena, Leverkusen, Germany2000–2001—

First patent granted on the staircase methodUnited States2007Inventor: Josef Hinterkeuser

### Primary source

The 1999 installation is documented in a first-person account by Josef Hinterkeuser, with photographs and video from the day: [First ever 3D Cam Carpets in football](/gallery/floorgraphics/first-ever-cam-carpets-leverkusen-1999/).

### Terminology

The formats described here are defined in the [glossary of 3D advertising terms](/glossary/): [3D FloorGraphics](/glossary/#floorgraphics), [StairGraphics](/glossary/#stairgraphics), [Cam Carpet](/glossary/#camcarpets), and the underlying technique, [anamorphosis](/glossary/#anamorphosis).

---

Source: https://www.shapeshiftermedia.com/invented-by-shapeshifter-media/
Publisher: Shapeshifter Media, Hamburg, Germany - https://www.shapeshiftermedia.com/
Contact: https://www.shapeshiftermedia.com/contact/