UPDATED 12:41 EDT / APRIL 19 2011

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Latest Developments in Kinect Human Technology Interface: Triage Simulation, “Self-Portrait” Statues, and Painting with Light

kinect-camera-exposed Latest Developments in Kinect Human Technology Interface: Triage Simulation, “Self-Portrait” Statues, Painting with Light, and Triage Simulation

The Microsoft Kinect has become something of a cult thriller amid a multitude of tech savvy communities. It’s become the center of attention for human computer interfaces from training people in American Sign Language to playing video games. Every now and again I like to trawl the web and look at where’s it’s been to get an idea of where this peripheral might be going.

Fortunately for the world, Microsoft literally unleashed its power by letting the homebrew hacker community off the hook, so let’s where it’s taking us.

ReadWriteWeb has discovered a series of new developments showing off the Kinect in a multitude of situations from being used as a modeler for a 3D printer to make “self-portrait” miniatures out of people; a public art-display that permitted people to paint with light; and a gesture control simulation for triage.

Becoming a Statue: Connecting a 3D printer to the Kinect

Barcelona based blablabLAB (warning: under construction) has released a workshop that is capable of taking three-dimensional shots of individuals and then uses a 3D printer to produce figurines of customers. This printer technology has been seen in play across a lot of industries (and includes a 3D printer that can print a working version of itself) and figurines have even been sold for players of popular MMORPGs like World of Warcraft in order to crystallize the look of their characters from those video games.

From blablabLAB on their “Be Your Own Souvenier” project,

The system invited each guest (acting  as a human statue) to be filmed in front of three kinect sensors for a full 360-degree scan. Real-time 3-D data was used to duplicate the best image of a subject via the hacked controller interface, then code was applied to turn the data points into a volumetric 3-D model. Moments later, the RapMan 3.1 3D printer ejected a figurine-sized version of the participant.

The Poor Military’s Holodeck: Gesture controls for training simulations

One of the biggest and best qualities of the Kinect happens to be how useful it has become for augmented reality. Looking at how effective it could be for learning gesture-based activities (like the sign language example above) it still has a lot of area to move into when it comes to training muscle memory and reflex based activities.

rooch84 on YouTUBE has a video up about a training simulation that involves medical triage. It also includes a “physical exertion challenge” which I think might actually benefit more from having a freely moving treadmill and not just gesture detection.

We used the Microsoft Kinect to create a simple free-handed interface for navigating a 3D world and performing triage. We also developed a walking system for physical exertion.

Painting With Light: NZ Post Auckland Arts Festival ‘Noise Ink’

I’ve kept the most beautiful for the last, and the ReadWriteWeb article did as well. Kinect and such make excellent mechanisms for public art. I’ve seen demos and displays inside of a movie theater that had a camera and a projector in the ceiling that would project little activities for people to fiddle with, including a game where their shadows would bounce projected balls around the floor.

What went on in New Zealand reminds me a lot of that demo,

I can’t think of a better way to end this post than with some Kinect art! Trent Brooks of New Zealand design agency &Some created an interactive projection piece for NZ Post’s Auckland Arts Festival at the end of March. The piece, entitled Noise Ink, ran every night during the festival from dusk till dawn. A Kinect camera was set up in a post box and detected motions, which generated “ink splash visuals on a 15m projection screen via body movement as well as stereo sounds.”


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