Gestures and Tools for Kinect - Eternal Coding - HTML5 / Windows / Kinect / 3D development You have certainly not missed (as a regular reader of this blog ) that the Kinect for Windows SDK is out! For now, however, no gestures recognition services are available. So throughout this paper we will create our own library that will automatically detect simple movements such as swipe but also movements more complex such as drawing a circle with your hand. The detection of such gestures enable Powerpoint control the Jedi way ! If you are not familiar with the Kinect for Windows SDK, you should read a previous post that addressed the topic: There is an infinite number of solutions for detecting a gesture. Algorithmic search Template based search Note that these two techniques have many variants and refinements. You can find the code used in this article just here: GestureDetector class In the end, all the work is done in the Add method: Recording Replay
Miguel Cardona's Coffee Cups for Charity by Eva Glettner Miguel Cardona is a professor of design and an illustrator with an unusual canvas: the paper coffee cup. No subject is off limits for Cardona—in fact, the more obscure, the better; be it Breaking Bad's Walter White, aliens or sea creatures. But it's what Cardona does with his myriad coffee cups that is even more special. The artist's interesting hobby began last year when he visited a cafe close to where he was doing on-site design contract work. Cardona tells CH, "Mostly I like robots and skulls. He loves the challenge of drawing on cups and the respect it earns him as an artist. Original coffee cup artworks are available online. Images courtesy of Miguel Cardona
Cinematics case study: Mass Effect 3 Earlier this year, Budapest studio Digic Pictures produced a stunning three minute trailer for the Bioware game Mass Effect 3. The trailer, dubbed 'Take Earth Back', tells the story of an alien invasion as Earth is attacked by the game's Reapers. We go in-depth with Digic to show how the cinematic was made - in stereo - featuring behind the scenes video breakdowns, images and commentary from several of the artists involved. Above: watch 'Take the Earth Back' Motion capture Artists: Csaba Kovari (Mocap TD), Istvan Gindele (Mocap TD), Gyorgy Toth (animator) We used Vicon’s T160 camera system to record all motion for this piece. In general we capture 2-3 or sometimes even 4 actors’ movements at once together with their props (swords, shields etc). Usually the mocap shooting days are preceded by rehearsal days, for example if we have a two day mocap shooting session then the actors need at least two-three days rehearsal with the director. Character animation Earth shot Blood effects 1.
Spectacular Bioluminescent Beaches Look Like Starry Skies Taiwanese photographer Will Ho (aka hala065) captures stunning images of bioluminescence at the Dusit Thani Maldives in Mudhdhoo that transforms the beaches into a magical, glowing coastline. The blue speckled sands provide a beautifully surreal accent to the landscape at night as the waves crash onto the shore, making it look like a spectacular reflection of a starry sky on the ground. Like on the coastlines of Australia, these beaches are populated by tiny phytoplankton that radiate vibrant sapphire luminesce as a defensive reaction to a disturbance in their environment. The natural response of the microorganisms could be to anything from the presence of a predator to nothing more than the moving of the tides. The photographer, who has been asked on multiple occasions whether the shots are real or not, insists his images are absolutely real though you'd have to be lucky enough to catch as great an occurrence as he experienced just outside of a Thai restaurant in the Maldives.
IIC_kinesthetic_cognition IIC. Kinesthetic Spatial Cognition “Kinesthetic spatial cognition” can be defined as referring to the perception, memory, and recall of spatial information via the kinesthetic perceptual-motor system. IIC.10 Spatial Cognition versus Verbal Cognition A great deal of research has demonstrated that spatial cognitive processes and verbal cognitive processes use separate cognitive resources. Other evidence for multi-channel models comes from studies of patients with neurological disease or injury. The right-brain spatial, left-brain verbal specialisation is not a fixed relationship but appears to be based on more fundamental differences in processing styles of the two cerebral hemispheres such as sequential processes of the left hemisphere versus holistic processes of the right hemisphere (Bradshaw and Nettleton, 1981; Luria, 1970; Trevarthen, 1978). However, in some cases when verbal labels are attached to stimuli the memory for those stimuli does not necessarily improve.
Russian Mother Takes Magical Portraits of Her Two Boys and their Animal Friends Russian photographer Elena Shumilova only got into photography in early 2012, when she acquired her first camera. But if you were to look through her Flickr and 500px profiles, you would swear she had been doing it for much, much longer. Her stunning photography revolves almost exclusively around photographs of her children and their animal friends on the family’s farm. Adorable children, animals and surroundings that already offer so much beauty to Shumilova’s lens combine into an enchanted world that is equal parts cozy and magical. Speaking with Bored Panda, she explains that her photos are part intuition, part inspiration: I largely trust my intuition and inspiration when I compose photos. Here’s a selection of Shumilova’s photography: Shumilova told Bored Panda that she shoots the images during the day, so as to not miss out on time she could be spending with her children, and then edits the images at night. (via Bored Panda)
Photography. Else Ernestine Neulander-Simon (A.k.a. YVA) Else Ernestine Neulander-Simon (Aka YVA) was a german photographer. Yva came from a Jewish middle-class family. She worked for many of the illustrated magazines and periodicals of the time. Towards the end of the 1920s, Yva began focusing on the commercial aspect of photography, specializing in advertising and photography. Yva’s innovative, and experimental work with multiple exposures became a hallmark of her work. Yva died at Sobibor extermination camp in 1944. More images>>>
Synesthetic Artist Suspends 20 Miles Of Ribbon Inside Grace Cathedral It’s hard to improve on the interior design of a building as hallowed and grandiose as Grace Cathedral in San Francisco, famed for its stained-glass windows, two labyrinths, and mosaics by Jan Henryk De Rosen. But New York-based artist Anne Patterson managed to make the space even more magical with her installation “Graced With Light,” made from 20 miles of silk ribbons suspended from the cathedral’s vaulted ceiling arches. In blue, green, red, and maroon, the ribbons reflect light from the windows like shimmering celestial curtains. Patterson has synesthesia, a neurological condition that, in her case, makes her see sounds and music as shapes and colors. “I sat in the pews, watching him and sketching, and I heard his notes traveling upward, which lent itself to the whole idea of verticality in these pieces,” the artist tells Co.Design. Was it daunting to create an installation for such a grandiose space? [via SFGate] All photos by Sean O’Leary and Fiestaban Photography.
The Geek Movement » UIST 2009 SIC: Laban Gestures for Expressive Keyboarding On October 5th, we participated in the Student Innovation Contest at the 2009 User Interface Software and Technology conference (UIST) in Victoria, BC. Student teams were given about a month to develop a novel use for a pressure sensitive keyboard developed by Microsoft Research, and all the entries were demonstrated and voted upon at the conference. Our submission is detailed below and in this demo video. Laban Gestures for Expressive Keyboarding Karen Tanenbaum, Josh Tanenbaum & Johnny Rodgers Simon Fraser University-School of Interactive Arts + Technology Keyboards tend to be discrete input devices, capable of multiple isolated interactions. Theatre and dance use movement frameworks to understand gesture. To situate our gestures in a mood space, we adopted Russell’s classic “circumplex” model of affect. By combining these two models, we have arrived at a framework for expressive gestures. We believe that this framework has applications wherever computation and emotion intersect.
Lone Photographer Climbs Canadian Rockies At Night, Documents Hike In Stunning Photos Paul Zizka got the idea for his epic photo series from early-morning mountaineering trips he took as a kid. "I was amazed by the quiet and beauty of a night spent high in the mountains," he told the Daily Mail. "Eventually, I ended up shooting more at night than during the day." The photographer's latest was shot at night around the Canadian Rockies (sites include Banff, Yoho and Kootenay National Parks). Paul Zizka/Caters HAFFNER CREEK, KOOTENAY NATIONAL PARK (DEC 12, 2013) Paul Zizka/Caters MORAINE LAKE, BANFF NATIONAL PARK (MAY 29, 2013) Paul Zizka/Caters LAKE MINNEWANKA, BANFF NATIONAL PARK (MAY 17, 2013) Paul Zizka/Caters LAKE MINNEWANKA, BANFF NATIONAL PARK (JUNE 7, 2013) Paul Zizka/Caters JOHNSON CANYON, BANFF NATIONAL PARK (SEPT 17, 2013) Paul Zizka/Caters LAKE MINNEWANKA, BANFF NATIONAL PARK (JAN 17, 2013) Paul Zizka/Caters EMERALD LAKE, YOHO NATIONAL PARK (DEC 6, 2013) Paul Zizka/Caters HAFFNER CREEK, KOOTENAY NATIONAL PARK (JAN 5, 2013)