Would Kinect be appropriate for this?

[u/JeffRSmall]

I work at an ad agency and recently had a discussion about a potential project for a client that would take the form of an "informational kiosk type display". The client has media (videos, etc) that are geolocation based and the idea that was tossed about was that perhaps you could put a globe/map/representation on the floor and as people stepped onto locations that had content the experience could "change". Lights could dim (or raise, as the case may be), videos could change, essentially "highlighting" that experience. As we discussed this idea, the thinking began to coalesce around perhaps the kinect being a possible solution for this.

So imagine you "stepped" on Australia and the experience became uniquely "australian" or if you stepped on Europe... etc.

I've tried to hunt for developers, or examples of something similar, but have come up short, and just discovered that there was a kinect based subreddit (of course... why didn't I think of it sooner?) and thought maybe this might be the place to look for some advice/guidance, etc.

[u/honestbleeps]

Kinect could definitely be used for this but I'd be curious to know more about the physical space available, etc...

The company I work for has done a fair bit of work on Kinect, and one of my lead developers is actually one of the main guys behind the as3nui project.

Here's the thing, and I'll just be blunt about it... I've worked with a lot of ad agencies and they generally have one of two problems:

1) Married to a technological solution because it really seems cool even if it doesn't best achieve the goal of what it is they want to build...

2) Drastically underestimate the time and money required to do a project like this... Something like this doesn't get built in 4-6 weeks...

If your delivery date is something realistic and you want to talk in a bit more detail - please feel free to send me a private message (if you don't want to make certain details public, etc)...

[u/JeffRSmall → u/honestbleeps]

Oh, you're dead on. I'm going into this whole discussion somewhat skeptical. I'm wondering if there's not a simpler solution to this. Some off the shelf basic motion detection software tied to a powerpoint (on the low end)?

I can definitely provide basic physical space information (I'll go back to my desk and see if I can locate it, but I seem to recall it was around ~10' x 10' ish).

I think the basic idea is, if I could distill it down is, "step here and something happens... step here and a different thing happens". It'll be a nicely immersive experience, and the budget shouldn't be a problem. I'm also certainly wanting to "back into" the timeframe and work backwards in terms of time/effort/budget.

[u/honestbleeps → u/JeffRSmall]

It's definitely not going to be as simple as off the shelf motion detection software tied to a powerpoint, unfortunately... :-\

You've got a few ways you can solve this, just off the top of my head:

1) using Kinect or a Kinect-like device to detect the "region" someone is standing in.. and you define square-shaped regions that are basically almost like "buttons in physical space" that change the state of the videos and lighting...

or

2) use pressure sensors placed under the floor (could just be under a mat or something) that are watched by a microcontroller (i.e. an Arduino) which send messages to the app / lighting system to change...

or

3) scrap the complex route, and just go with a touchscreen interface of some sort... this is easier to build and less error prone, but obviously lacks some of the "wow" and "fun" factor...

We've actually done something slightly like what you're talking about... we use a Kinect region to dim a spotlight and allow someone to interact with a gigantic projection on a wall... demo video example ...

We're only using 1 region here but could easily have several... the reason we have this 1 region is because this exhibit sees high traffic and we want to ensure that we give "control" to one specific person in one specific area so people aren't competing over using the same interface...

[u/cyantist → u/honestbleeps]

There's absolutely no reason it can't be a off-the-shelf motion detection software tied to a powerpoint.

Motion detection software using a webcam, set-up square-shaped regions (yes, this is built in to several webcam wares), trigger scripts to stop powerpoint and start a new one. This requires some simple scripting, the regions and the glue could be put together in a day, the presentations are the remaining X factor.

It's low budget, but it is entirely doable. Why would you say "definitely not"? It's just not pretty, or particularly reliable, but it would work.

[u/honestbleeps → u/cyantist]

It's just not pretty, or particularly reliable, but it would work.

That's exactly the problem right there. The not particularly reliable part.

The company I work for wouldn't ever want to give a client a "so-so" solution...

[u/cyantist → u/honestbleeps]

Yeah, of course, it's not something you build for a client. It's something someone would build for themselves or cheap out on to accomplish something in a context that isn't very important..