youcloudsofdoom

So I'm looking into possibilities to track multiple bodies in a dark performance space and correlate their movements to sonic developments via midi. I've done it in a white cube space by lowering the threshold value on my laptop cam input to 30 and tracking the amount of black in the image (the audience's clothes mostly) and dividing the image into grids and assigning each grid to a midi out, but this isn't going to work in a dark room as everything will be black!

I've been looking at IR possibilities - either a low light USB cam, or by flooding the room with IR light and tracking the changes. Any thoughts on cheap and reasonably dependable solutions?

So I'm looking into possibilities to track multiple bodies in a dark performance space and correlate their movements to sonic developments via midi.  I've done it in a white cube space by lowering the threshold value on my laptop cam input to 30 and tracking the amount of black in the image (the audience's clothes mostly) and dividing the image into grids and assigning each grid to a midi out, but this isn't going to work in a dark room as everything will be black!

I've been looking at IR possibilities - either a low light USB cam, or by flooding the room with IR light and tracking the changes.  Any thoughts on cheap and reasonably dependable solutions?


creative-crowd-tracking-for-performance

Ah yeah, I was thinking about the Kinect. How easy is it to track multiple bodies in a space with it?

Ah yeah, I was thinking about the Kinect.  How easy is it to track multiple bodies in a space with it?


Depends on your needs. Up to 6 people within 4m range is really easy. The Kinect SDK (implemented in the dp.kinect external) outputs that straight. For higher counts or distances, or hanging the cam on the ceiling your have to do some kind of blob detection. The depth map can help here because you can filter out floors and walls so easily. The depth map accuracy degrades with distance though.

Ah that's very useful info, thanks. It probably will be more people in a wider range, but I guess there are various ways around that. I've always been a bit puzzled by the cv jit blob stuff, but I am sure it's immensely useful. I'll have to brush up on that!

Ah that's very useful info, thanks.  It probably will be more people in a wider range, but I guess there are various ways around that.  I've always been a bit puzzled by the cv jit blob stuff, but I am sure it's immensely useful.  I'll have to brush up on that!


Yeah, it looks pretty perfect, but to be honest I just don't have the spare cash around to spring for it (struggling artist woes)...hence trying to build my own solution.

Just in case anyone is looking for a similar solution, attached is what I came up with that uses a webcam to track movement and turn it into midi data.

Creative crowd tracking for performance