From: brucec@phoebus.labs.tek.com (Bruce Cohen)
Subject: Re: TECH/APP: Cheap Video Input Card: Demo idea
Date: 7 Feb 92 17:07:09 GMT
Organization: Software Technology Research Laboratory, Tektronix Inc.



In article <1992Feb5.200728.23857@watserv1.waterloo.edu> dstamp@watserv1.
waterloo.edu (Dave Stampe-Psy+Eng) writes:

> As I posted earlier, the video tracker is done (est cost with cheap camera:
> $600 or so).  Now I'm thinking of ways to show it off, without spending
> weeks writing software.  Point tracking is very trivial, object tracking
> almost.  BUT: how about a simple VR videogame?

How about finger-painting? if you put a thimble over one finger with a
piece of retro-reflective tape on it, and put the light source next to
the camera, you should be able to get enough contrast that the tracker
can detect only the fingertip.  Then have it leave a dot of color at a
point in the output framebuffer based on where it saw the finger.  There
are all kinds of simple enhancements you can do to make this more
interesting later: detect another finger whose position controlls the
color, intensity, size, or whatnot of the dot, airbursh effects
(graphitti on the cyberspace walls! :-)) controlled by the finger
velocity, etc.

Someday that could be enhanced to use 2 cameras and do painting in
3-space, but with only a couple of days time to spend, it's not worth
playing with the depth detection software.

"The end cause ... is too often handed off as an afterthought to harried
interface designers who follow programmers around with virtual brooms
and pails." - Brenda Laurel in "Computers as Theatre"
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Speaker-to-managers, aka
Bruce Cohen, Software Technology Research Lab   email: brucec@strl.labs.tek.com
Tektronix Laboratories, Tektronix, Inc.         phone: (503)627-5241
M/S 50-662, P.O. Box 500, Beaverton, OR  97077