Kinect hack makes awesome digital shadow puppet show possible

Nov. 19, 2010 (6:05 am) By: Matthew Humphries

The release of open source drivers for Kinect has opened the flood gates on experimentation with the motion controller, and this latest project should be picked up and released as an official Kinect game in our opinion.

Using the libfreenect drivers and openFrameworks, Emily Gobeille and Theo Watson have created a digital shadow puppet show like no other. The Kinect is used to do skeleton tracking on the arm of the puppeteer. It determines where the shoulder, elbow, and wrist are and then uses their movement to affect the movement of the colorful character projected on the wall. Fingertips are also tracked allowing the brid's beak to open and close.

The end result is the best shadow puppet show I've ever seen, and something that's sure to enthrall young children sitting around the world. It could also help sell a few more Kinects for Microsoft.

This is only the beginning of the project, though. Theo has plans to start reacting to depth so he can possibly get the projected characters turning their heads and looking at their audience. Who knows, we might even get 3D shadow puppets eventually.

Microsoft, make that call and get this in production now!