Mercury

Ideas, pictures, progress, and props will be here for the bridge between the Microsoft Kinect and open source 3D editing software.

[mercurybridge]

Mercury: Worlds Within Proposal

This week has been devoted finalizing the proposal for my CITA 295 class. This project, which doubles as the project for Creativity Lab has gone through MANY changed since my first drafts of it.

Now I have something I will be proud of.

Now I have something that I can actually do.

Now I have something to show my talent.

So yes, it's been a rocky road, but here, at the final stretch, I breath a sigh of relief as all the pieces manage to be forced into place.

[mercurybridge]

Freework Week 2

This week I've been focusing on learning Java.Swing, which is a library in the java language that allows for the creation of graphical interfaces. Basically, I'm learning this library so I can make a GUI for my bridge.

Before Swing, the only graphics packages I have ever worked with was graphics.py for the Python programming language. This was roughly two years ago so learning a new library has been a bit slower going than I would have liked.

Essentially, Swing allows for making windows, graphics, animations, drop downs, buttons, etc etc. 

tl;dr, I'm learning to make my bridge look pretty.

[mercurybridge]

Freework Week 1

I brought a Kinect into class today (thanks to a very helpful donor) to try to get more data or at least play with the data from the camera. It again, took a while to get the drivers and everything set up, but once I did, I got the class and my professor to sit and look at how the depth camera works. I like the software I found to play with, but I don't think it is open source. It's called Artec Studio 9 and it can handle up to 7 or so sensors at the same time, which is pretty damn impressive. It felt good to be able to show others what I was actually getting up to.

[mercurybridge]

Getting off the ground AKA, More work

ALRIGHT, so I finally got the Kinect to work with my PC. Finding drivers took a little bit of time, but now I can actually use the damn thing. The next step is to (hopefully) find a way to pull the raw data from the readings. What to do with the data? Not really sure yet. But I'm working on it!

[mercurybridge]

SO! This was a (very rouch) sketch in ms Paint of the concept I was aiming for for the GUI (graphical user interface) for the software I wanted to put together. Basically it would function like a picture taking app on a phone or something. The user would stand in front of the Kinect, line themselves up with the template, take a front shot, two side shots, and a rear shot. The software would take those four depth images and generate a photorealistic 3D model of the person and export that model to 3D software for manipulation/animation/distortion/etc. :D

I do *not* have any code written down yet, but I've learned that having an idea of the end goal is much better for programming then just programming with no idea of what you want it to look like in the end.

[mercurybridge]

Realizations: A.k.a, Intro the Intro

I am well aware that I am far behind in my work for this class due to being out of town and then being ill for a week. Here's hoping to catch back up! So the purpose of THIS post if to tackle the Intro the Intro part of the work you guys did a week or two ago. 

Recently I've done some research into other Kinect/user interface software and I've discovered that there are things similar to what I wanted to do already. What does this mean for my project? It means I will be broadening my horizons as to what the end goal of the project will be while also looking into other avenues of progress to take. 

My interest and investment in this technology is still very solid and I plan to work with the Kinect tech regardless of what my final project ends up looking like. The idea that this camera can pull so much information: depth, sound, video, etc is awesome to me. There is so much potential for this sort of thing. Tools to assist the blind, gaming controllers, software interfaces using your own body rather than a mouse. The list goes on.

My dream is to take tech like this and add my own advancement to the field. Both because I want to and because it would make my resume look better. 

The main idea for my project is "creativity in motion" and how exactly I'm going to make that happen is still slowly being made concrete.

My expectations are some significant coding, a lot of brainstorming, and a few trashed ideas. If I can't put out software of my own, I'd like to at least build off of someone else's and have something cool to show for it.

By the end of this project I want a better understanding of programming in general and an excellent understanding of the Kinect technology.

[mercurybridge]

Diagnostics Check

ALRIGHT, so. The Kinect connects (bahah) to my computer well enough. My computer reads it as a peripheral. I'm still working on getting the libraries that would let me actually USE the Kinect, but there are tutorials for that. I just need to set aside a little time to do so. I've also got Blender and Panda3D installed and running. I'm not super familiar with their interfaces, but i've watched some tutorials and plan on actually doing a little modeling.

So there's that! I think the next step will be getting the data from the Kinect to a format I can use. That update should be soon.

[mercurybridge]

With some sources of inspiration!

[mercurybridge]

Stepping Stones

Alright, to get cracking on this project, I need to understand a couple of things. The first thing to look at is how the Kinect works. The second thing to be addressed is it's compatibility with a Window's machine.

Both of these things are addressed here

http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/microsoft-kinect2.htm,

and here.

http://www.kinecthacks.com/guides/install-kinect-on-your-pc-and-start-developing-your-programs-disclaimer/

Once this understanding is put together, the next question is can I physically afford to do this work. And, yes, I can. I've got access to 2 Kinects and free 3D modeling software, so I'm good to go there.

My biggest concerns at the moment are learning the modeling software and  building my own way to connect the two objects. This is something I'm still looking into.

[mercurybridge]

(Tentative Title) Fus Roh You

In a nutshell, my project is to develop a mod for The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim where the player can use a Kinect camera to to play as themselves in the game.

Since this is also my CITA capstone project and I won't be finishing it within the time span of this semester, my goal for this semester is to learn as much as I can about the Kinect camera and how it is programmed and to (hopefully) have a working prototype of the image capture software I need to make to use with the mod.

This project is relevant because I want this to be a stepping stone into taking video games in a new direction. If I had unlimited resources and time, I'd like to make a multiplayer game where the players insert themselves into the game world using the Kinect or something like it. Think Tron, but more up to date.

The inspiration for this idea came from looking at the Kinect software/hardware and realizing what kinds of doors this technology was beginning to open up. I don't think we could even predict what games will look like in fifteen years and I want to be right there and involved when things start happening.

My motivation from this project is my aspiration to be a more competent programmer that people can take seriously. I want to have something like this mod under my belt so that when I go to job interviews the people interviewing me may be like "Wait, *YOU* made that mod? That was so cool" or something similar.

The known challenges for the project are quite varied: from having to learn C, to finding one or two Kinects to do research/run tests on, to understanding Skyrim's programming. All of this is new territory for me, but I feel with enough perseverance and some help from friends/ other modders/engineers, I can make it happen.