“Wired throughout the body, trapped in a dancing mind.” That’s the description of this stunning new experimental film, as·phyx·i·a, created by Maria Takeuchi and Frederico Phillips. The presentation, which was made with the motion capture technology in Microsoft’s Kinect sensor, features a digital representation of professional dancer, Shiho Tanaka, moving through space, accompanied by an ambient soundtrack.
“The project is an effort to explore new ways to use and/or combine technologies and different fields in an experiment without many of the common commercial limitations. The performance is centered in an eloquent choreography that stresses the desire to be expressive without bounds,” says the description on the film’s website.
To create the dramatic visuals and maintain the artistry of the performance, the Kinect sensor was used to record movement. “Motion data was captured using inexpensive sensors and that data paved the way through an extensive number of steps. Once all the scanned point cloud data was combined, that was then used as the base for the creative development on the piece. A series of iterative studies on styles followed and several techniques and dynamic simulations were then applied using a number 3D tools for various results.”
The Kinect is mostly known for being the camera on the Xbox One used to play games such as Dance Central Spotlight and Xbox Fitness but it has also been used in a range of scientific and art projects over the years.
Microsoft initially sold a Kinect for Windows model designed for usage with a PC but eventually discontinued it and instead released an adapter which allowed for developers to connect the Xbox One Kinect to their computers. Ironically, the latest version of the Xbox One console, the Xbox One S, no longer supports the console Kinect’s port and console owners are required to use a new USB adapter to use it.
Have you seen any cool uses of the Kinect? Share your finds in the comments below.
