Research: The KidsRoom
We have also examined the capabilities of our motion recognition methods within interactive and virtual worlds requiring computer interpretation of participant motions. The first interactive environment we designed for this purpose was titled The KidsRoom. The experience attempted to create a fantasy-world within a child's bedroom where the children could participate in a storybook narrative and interact with virtual monsters that are projected onto the walls of the room (See figure below). The playspace facilitated the interactions using computer vision to track the children and monitor their activities. During one scene the children and virtual monsters had the opportunity to dance together, taking turns and copying the dance movements of each other. Motion recognition was used here to connect the actions of the children to the responses of the virtual monsters. This system motivated a focus of interaction that took place between the real and virtual world using the movements of the children to drive the interaction. A new version of this environment (KidsRoom-2) as designed by the interactive installation company Nearlife is currently installed in London's Millennium Dome.
For more online information, please go to the KidsRoom Website.
The KidsRoom
Related Papers
- The Kidsroom: A Perceptually-Based Interactive and Immersive Story Environment
A. Bobick, S. Intille, J. Davis, F. Baird, C. Pinhanez, L. Campbell, Y. Ivanov, A. Schutte, and A. Wilson
Presence: Teleoperators and Virtual Environments, 8(4), 1999, pp. 367-391.
- Design Decisions for Interactive Environments: Evaluating the KidsRoom Application Using a Deep Perceptual Interface
A. Bobick, S. Intille, J. Davis, F. Baird, C. Pinhanez, L. Campbell, Y. Ivanov, A. Schutte, and A. Wilson
AAAI Spring Symposium on Intelligent Environments, March 1998, pp. 7-16
- The KidsRoom: An Example Application Using a Deep Perceptual Interface
A. Bobick, J. Davis, S. Intille
Workshop on Perceptual User Interfaces, October 1997, pp. 1-4.
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