Traditional digital animation techniques can be costly and time-consuming. But KinÊtre—a new Kinect for Windows project developed by a team at Microsoft Research Cambridge—makes the process quick and simple enough that anyone can be an animator who brings inanimate objects to life.
KinÊtre uses the skeletal tracking technology in the Kinect for Windows software development kit (SDK) for input, scanning an object as the Kinect sensor is slowly panned around it. The KinÊtre team then applied their expertise in cutting-edge 3-D image processing algorithms to turn the object into a flexible mesh that is manipulated to match user movements tracked by the Kinect sensor.
Microsoft has made deep investments in Kinect hardware and software. This enables innovative projects like KinÊtre, which is being presented this week at SIGGRAPH 2012, the International Conference and Exhibition on Computer Graphics and Interactive Techniques. Rather than targeting professional computer graphics (CG) animators, KinÊtre is intended to bring mesh animation to a new audience of novice users.
Shahram Izadi, one of the tool's creators at Microsoft Research Cambridge, told me that the goal of this research project is to make this type of animation much more accessible than it's been—historically requiring a studio full of trained CG animators to build these types of effects. "KinÊtre makes creating animations a more playful activity," he said. "With it, we demonstrate potential uses of our system for interactive storytelling and new forms of physical gaming."
This incredibly cool prototype reinforces the world of possibilities that Kinect for Windows can bring to life and even, perhaps, do a little dance.
Peter Zatloukal,
Kinect for Windows Engineering Manager
Key Links
- Experience Kinect for Windows
- Video: Animating the World with Your Body
- Microsoft Research Cambridge
- Microsoft TechNet Article