
A Superman-style pantomime commands your avatar to fly via Kinect
The software to connect your Kinect to Second Life, which we first saw demonstrated last month, is available to all who want to try doing it themselves: Click here to download the .zip file.
Developed by Thai Phan (Second Life name: Ty Gould), an engineer at the MxR Lab of USC's Insititute for Creative Technologies, the software, he tells me, "contains the executable I made for my demonstration. It contains instructions on how to setup Kinect with your PC. Someone on YouTube got it working, so I'm glad it works." This is how: "The software I wrote constantly checks where your hands, elbows, and shoulders are at all time," Thai tells me. "When it detects you are doing a certain gesture, it emulates keyboard short cuts that are sent to the Second Life viewer. The keyboard commands are picked up by an animation-override that must be attached to your avatar. Based on what keystrokes are pressed, the animation override will trigger the corresponding animation."
As he demonstrates in the video (viewable below), "avatar control using gesture is not one-to-one." Before your avatar can perform the action you're making, "my software has to first detect the gesture. Afterwards, keyboard commands are sent to Second Life over the Internet. Finally, your avatar will perform the appropriate animation."
However, Thai's software is just the first step to more intuitive person-to-avatar interaction, and other developers can improve upon what he has innovated. The development suggests a future of virtual world interaction beyond the emoticons and rudimentary avatar gestures we're accustomed to now. Read more after the break: