Chris O’Shea, the developer of the Kinect Interactive Stories to Children, released his latest and one of the most fun contributions to the Kinect Community. The “Body Swap” is a Kinect-powered game which transforms the two users’ body into puppet versions of themselves. The figures are then swapped, giving the other person control of the other’s puppet figure and vice versa. The Kinect is able to detect the images of the users and also their depth and movement. As they move, so does their figures and they can easily make fun of the other because of the fact that they have complete control of the other’s image. In the video, you can see the users taking advantage of this simple joy with their children. The adults take control of their children’s puppet figures while the kids have their parent’s puppets. The players then proceed to have fun by doing physical actions. A similar project made was the Neurospasta. The “Body Swap” project was made possible by a custom written software in C++, the Microsoft’s Kinectt, OpenFrameworks, and OpenCV.
Here is a description of Body Swap by Chris O’Shea:
“This installation transforms your body movements into control of another person. Dance around, jump in the air, do anything you like to make them look silly. However don’t forget, they are doing it to you at the same time.
Two people stand in front of the screen, are captured by the camera and turned into paper cut-out versions of themselves. The images are then swapped, so that you each take control of the other. The aesthetic is of a low polygon 90′s video game. Music plays and prompts you to act out to the audience and each other.
Two players of different height, such as father and son, see a reversal of scale. The youngest magically becomes big, and the adult shrinks to the proportions of the child.”
For more information about the Kinect Body Swap, visit its Vimeo Page.
