Surrealist 3D sculptures using a hacked Kinect - help me make more!

[mattbell]

 

I believe that consumer-level 3D cameras will have a huge impact on a variety of industries and will lead to the creation of many types of new products.  I've started to play around with the Kinect using the OpenKinect hack & open source codebase.  

For my first project I created a 3D sculpture tool.  In the video, parts of the sculpted image become updated when an object in that area moves closer to the camera than any other object has been in the past.  This lets you carve images in space by moving them closer to the camera.  This took a day of intense work -- I'm planning on making some upgrades to it over the next few days to make it even more interesting.

I also would love to shoot some more videos.  In particular, I want to do the following, though I'm totally up for experimenting and playing with different things:
- People doing acrobatics
- Dancing (especially couples dancing, like waltz)
- Recreating the painting Nude Descending a Staircase (nude or not-nude).  I need a better staircase than the one in my house
- A playful cat chasing things (preferably light or multicolored cat with short hair.  I don't think the camera would do as well with cats with long black hair)
- Moving the camera through lots of houseplants, or just one that is blowing in the wind.

Also, if anyone has a recommendation for a better Mac screencapture program, I'd love to hear it.  The one I downloaded last night hiccups and causes other issues.

Comments

[bennj.livejournal.com]

This reminds me of http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=12zJw9varYE

[plymouth.livejournal.com]

heh, I thought the same thing!

[sandrak.livejournal.com]

Reminds me of the big screen at the one Grateful Dead concert I ever went to. At least, I think that's what was on the screen-it looked that way to me ;)

[papertygre.livejournal.com]

like!

[nasu-dengaku.livejournal.com]

I just did another one! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=inim0xWiR0o

[papertygre.livejournal.com]

How do you tell the camera to take a new freeze frame while you're moving? It looks like it happens at intentional times, and unrelated to how close you are to the camera.

[nasu-dengaku.livejournal.com]

It's on a fixed timer, so it takes new freeze frames at a constant rate. I can also have it take frames on demand, but that would require having a second person nearby. :-)

[ferrouswheel.livejournal.com]

I love how the poi look like brush strokes...

Also - another awesome art project, well done!