We've been playing with the Kinect for Windows for a while. [wire] stone Labs has uncovered uses ideal for event, retail, brand, and high-traffic spaces applications. One of our evolving explorations revolves around using it to create public engagement scenarios.
One of our ideas was to capture passersby and present their likeness back to them in motion, in real time, and in an altered reality sort of way. What was the result? Something we call the Kinect Interactive Window. It's a simple, fun, and colorfully striking concept. Like the classic Pin Art but digital.
Our biggest technical challenge was how to process the large amount of data generated by the Kinect depth camera in real time. It generates 307,200 points on every frame. We had to capture that data, do additional processing, generate meshes and display them back to viewers—instantly.
How did we do that? We used the parallel processing abilities of GPUs. Basically, more or less powerful cards could handle more or less pins. After we figured that out, the fun began.
Our first public test was near our Fort Collins, Colorado. office for the city's downtown music festival. We built a
rear projection system out of high diffusion film and a 5,000-lumen rear-projector. The crowd loved it.
The combination of physical, creative, and technological engagement made people giddy.
Next we unveiled it at Sacramento’s Second Saturday art walk. We added continuous
depth map capture
and Twitter integration. The former let us observe how people interact with the experience in the dark.
Again, the engagement level amazed us. The latter encouraged people to tweet about their experience.
We tracked #2ndSat and #wirestone hashtags, and found strong brand affinity.
We're kicking around other Kinect concepts at Labs beyond this one. Look for us to post about them, here.
Potential applications
- High traffic public spaces entertainment
- Foot traffic attraction
- Brand awareness and reinforcement