For the third week we were experimenting with Kinect V2 or Azure. I played Kinect games before, and used V2, so really wanted to try out the Azure one. I hit a creative block because every week we have to generate various ideas for different assignments, and at some point one needs a break from that. Naturally, I turned to the internet search for inspirations. I wanted to do something 3d data related (later, realized that I couldn't though), so I googled that. The following video became my inspiration:
Two people playing with interactive puppet controlled with their hands controlled by Kinect
Step 1
Since I've never worked with three.js and stuff like that, I decided to alter this idea to use just 2d coordinates and skeleton points. Firstly, I chose swan as an animal that I would be puppeteering. Then I chose geometric shapes for each joint and wrote down their numbers in the code.
Step 2
I used Lisa's skeleton code as a basis for my idea. I used 3 ellipses and 1 rectangle with rounded corners at first. I realized that a big issue was that this forms don't have any relationship between each other, and the sensor is quite sensitive. So if my arm isn't in precise pose that shape just falls apart. Not sure if there's any way to improve that. I think it took me an hour just manipulating size and x & y coordinates of each shape so it would look similar.
Me controlling the shape on the screen via Azure
The bird-like red shape with white eye
Step 3
I added another shoulder point which would serve as swan's body, eye, changed the color to white and added background that represent lake scene. So overall it worked out fine, despite my arm killing me after several hours of holding it in the same position...
Me puppeteering the swan
Final video of how the swan puppet looks on the screen
Piece of my code