[sldev] Body motion and facial expression tracking, Microsoft did it

[Philippe Bossut (Merov Linden)]

Hi,

On Jun 3, 2009, at 8:17 AM, Mike Monkowski wrote:

> Philippe Bossut (Merov Linden) wrote:
>> Also note that the videos by MS are *not* demos (i.e.  live  
>> effective code) but staged shooting.
>
> Here's the live demo.  Pretty much the same script.
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GH_gDreIdcM
>


Wait, wait: that's not the same script at all:
- single player only (I'm so not surprised...), 2 players only to  
silhouette (no 3D required there, no tracking either BTW)
- huge space for the camera tracking (ditto), ideal conditions really

Note that most of the effects in the ball game could be controlled by  
simple silhouetting, no rigging of an avatar. Similar demos are  
visible on Softkinetic website I mentioned yesterday. Here's another  
one BTW for the curious: http://www.omekinteractive.com/

I like the paint party game though. GestureTek is proposing similar  
(and as good) interactive games since years now (http://www.gesturetek.com/ 
). Mostly for commercial settings and museums though.

The really tricky things that could be seen in the other demo (close  
range capture in a busy living room, multiplayer, full body rigging)  
are, as far as I can tell, not there yet.

I do agree though that it's a matter of time before we see them  
available (by one of the actors I mentioned, not necessarily MS, plus  
a bunch of stealth start ups I know are working on this). So let's not  
argue about this. The real question for SL (and VW in general) is: are  
those technologies relevant to VW interaction? What do *we* (as a  
community) want from these technologies?

I think Ron/Hiro was spot on addressing this question yesterday and  
this is where we should focus our attention on.

Cheers,
- Merov