About BallBouncer
What?
BallBouncer is an intuitive 3D interactive game which uses motion detection as the user interface. In this game members of the audience see themselves in a mirror image projected on to a large screen. This 'mirror' is augmented by virtual balls that bounce realistically in three dimensions when 'hit' by the audience. The game uses a data projector, a computer and a single camera. The interaction is robust and convincing. We currently have four games and are working on more. Have a look at the video in the gallery!
Who?
Our game is for crowds that can consist of any kind of person! (Independent of age, knowledge, experience...)
Where?
It can be played in rooms that have inclined seating and a projection screen at the front, such as lecture halls, stadiums, movie theatres...
Why?
Firstly, the hardware is very cheap and the setup simple. Secondly, the interaction is so natural and intuitive that no learning is necessary. And thirdly, there is no other motion recognising 3D game for crowds - as far as we know :-) (cf. similar systems in links).
How?
See sections details and publications :-)
Background
Motivation for creating the game came from Geoff organising Graphite '05. Geoff and Simon were presenting together on why to study computer science, and Simon had a demonstration of a 2D web camera interaction. This sparked Geoff's imagination and the idea of full 3D interaction was born. The initial development of BallBouncer was between October 2005 and March 2006 at the Graphics and Vision Research Lab, Department of Computer Science, University of Otago, New Zealand, by:
- Geoff Wyvill (Professor at the University of Otago)
- Simon McCallum (then lecturer at the University of Otago, now Associate Professor at Gjøvik University College in Norway)
- Jana Sieber (internship student at Graphics Lab and student of Computational Visualistics at the University of Magdeburg, now research assistant at the research group User Interfaces & Software Engineering at the University of Magdeburg in Germany)
- Kerstin Kellermann (internship student at Graphics Lab and student of Computational Visualistics at the University of Magdeburg)
Acknowledgement:
We thank the following persons for their selfless support during the development and testing of BallBouncer:
- Stefan Hiller (German internship student at the Graphics Lab)
- Maarten Van Sambeek (Dutch internship student at the Graphics Lab)
- Philip McLeod (Kiwi PhD student at the Graphics Lab)
- Damon Smith (Kiwi master's student at the Graphics Lab)
