Let's Kinect
- Oct 13, 2020
- 3 min read
This week we had an assignment from our Human Computer Interactions course to come up with a concept of an interactive piece that went with the theme "coupling" and would be an interactive experience that was built for two.
I was really inspired by thinking back to a game that I would play with my best childhood friend Emily until we were unable to breath from exhaustion. The Just Dance series.
I used this video (starts about a minute in) by the youtube channel Just Dance like all Star because it shows the game, video of people playing, and the video from the kinect tracker so people who are unfamiliar can have a better understanding of exactly what this game is/ how it works.
I came up with the idea for an Interactive Experience called "Let's Kinect" (for my non gaming readers out there Kinect is a type of hardware that works with the Xbox to track your body movements which is what the game above "Just Dance" uses.) Honestly not sure if I would be allowed to use that because of copyright and all that but if not we'll just go with "Let's Connect" instead.
So this piece would be set up in a small space or room that has two doors on either side for each person to enter through and a large screen panel in the center of the room that separates the two users from seeing each other.
When a user walks into the space a kinect starts tracking them and displays their (well a general) body shape outline in a randomly selected color on their own screen and mirrors it onto the other users screen as well. The room is dark and silent but once the users start to overlap/ sync up their outlines and start moving in unison music will start playing with some cool and colorful graphics, if the people fall out of sync the graphics stop and fade and the music cuts back to silence. I think it would be nice to have more fast pace movement of they are moving quicker and a nicer calm music if they are in sync but moving slowly. Creating unique experiences depending on how they participate. I think with the upbeat music and bright lights some people may be encouraged to dance together. I think dancing together really forms a connection between two people and this would be a very interesting experience because you would be dancing with a stranger who you can't even see. If they move slow, I think it would just be a calming more relaxed wholesome experience that radiates togetherness.
I think a message that this could push is that life is more exciting and fun when you are doing things with another person rather than on your own. It also is more challenging, and perhaps frustrating, depending on how the other person acts - like if they move super fast and sporadic to try and see if the other user can keep up with them vs. someone who moves slowly and predictable to make it easier for the other user to stay in sync. Also the dynamics of team players, leaders, and followers would show... are they naturally in sync taking turns taking the lead or is one person leading while the other person just copies their movement the whole time. People could understand a lot about the other person without even actually seeing them.
Overall I think this would leave participants with joy and fun, bring out playfulness, and celebrate togetherness.
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