the following is supposed to be a short description of a student project and I ask you folks to give us some hints how to start and technically implement the project. I would be very happy if you do so. THANKS :)
we are two students from germany and came up with a nice idea within a cooperation project of information scientists and architects.
SHADOW is what it's all about.
we want to imitate and manipulate the shadows of people. to do so, we have a microsoft KINECT, which is supposed to track the people passing by.
a projector throws there calculated shadows on the wall. the shadows can then be slower, smaller, time-shifted...whatever...
furthermore, we'd like to implement some additional objects, people can interact with.
this means in detail, that we'd like to put additional shadows on the wall, which, in difference to the people's shadow, have no real counterpoint.
so what we basically have:
INPUT -> kinect signal
OUTPUT -> people's shadows (from kinect input)
OUTPUT -> other shadows (from graphics [png,gif,eps,flash,..] and videos [flash,mov,avi,...])
today, i'll get the KINECT. and here's a list of questions that came up by thinkging about the implementation:
* how do I make the kincet input look nice and smooth?
because object borders are quiet rough as far as I know. I will need to run some image processing on the input data.
* which format actually has the kinect input? video?
* to manipulate the shadows, make them slower or time-shifted, I'll need to make image/video processing again.
maybe I'll need to store the input data for a while to output the shadows a little later, so that they are not in real-time.
* how do I include additional objects, e.g. flash animations?
to include other shadow objects in my output, I'll need the possibility to handle and combine multiple input sources to one output stream.
* what's hot and top for interaction functionality?
for interaction I'll need collision detection and all those fancy techniques...
any suggestions for LIBRARIES, FRAMEWORKS, PLUGINS or DRIVERS are very welcome!
this would help me most, because it gets me started and time is short, unfortunately!
as candy for you folks, I promise to post a movie of the making-of and the exhibition it's going to be set up for.
I hope you have something for us and thanks for sharing!
