IMD Forum for 9/27/06: Simon Penny
Embodied Interaction via Volumetric Machine Vision:
Seven Years with the Traces Vision System
Time: Wednesday, September 27, 6-8pm
Location: USC's Robert Zemeckis Center for Digital Arts (RZC)
Room 201 Zemeckis Media Lab (ZML)
Simon Penny
Professor of Arts and Engineering
Director of ACE Graduate Program
University of California Irvine
Abstract
Traces Vision System is a unique, flexible and economical real time volumetric machine vision system designed for real time embodied interaction by performers and the public in a variety of contexts, including immersive and VR environments, telematics, single user installations, stage productions and indoor and outdoor public sites. Fundamental to the premises of the design of the system is its interface-less nature. Designed primarily for embodied interactive cultural experience by untrained users, no special equipment or garb must be worn by the user and no special symbolic languages or procedures are required. The system is designed to 'read' normal human bodily gesture. The core theoretical issues center on the negotiation of human computer interaction from the perspective of a phenomenological and 'active-sensing' approach to embodiment, kinesthesia and proprioception. This talk will explore the theoretical and technical dimensions of the system, starting with video documentation of several projects, including Traces (1999), Jew of Malta (an opera, 2003), Body Electric (2003), Fugitive II (2004), and Spectre (2006). The system was designed, from the outset, as a low budget system within the reach of artists and arts organizations, and performs better than systems many times its cost. The setup, hardware and software of the system is described, including camera placement and calibration, lighting issues, construction of a point cloud representation of the user(s) from camera images, and the development of specialize client functions. Development of the system began in 1998 by Simon Penny and Andre Bernhardt. Premiered at Ars Electronica in 1999, the system has been in development ever since and has been deployed in projects in Germany, Austria, Canada, USA, UK and Australia.