Transcript Kinect Multi-Touch Gaming Table

Justin Gold
Patrick Lupiani
The Goal

Enhance the experience of traditional
tabletop gaming over long distance
 Make it as ‘natural’ feeling as possible
 High levels of social Interaction
 More than just a virtual version of a board
game
 Fun!
The Table
Based on the design of a collaborative
product with MITRE
 Multi-touch and gestural interface
 Real and virtual objects
 Networking
 Telepresence

The Vision

Extend the table to include
 Interactable gaming widgets
○ Dice, spinners, etc.
 Structured interactions
 AI based gaming
The Competition
Microsoft Surface
 E-Whiteboards
 Tablet Computers

We can do that plus…
Object scanning
 Cheaper than most other solutions
 Gestural tracking with Kinect includes
height data
 Did we mention the object scanning

Implementation
Libfreenect
 .NET/C#
 Extensive use of computer vision
 Finger/Hand Tracking
 Intended to be ported to the SDK

Bumps in the road
Base table took longer to implement
 Kinect resolution issues
 Limited hand tracking capabilities

 No built in skeletons for hands
Kinect is a resource hog
 Calibration to back projection
 Top Projection very light sensitive

If we knew then what we know
now
Program structure
 Kinect Issues

 Depth limitations
 Relative immaturity of the drivers

Wait for SDK
Where could it go…
Library of playable games
 Build-a-game framework
 More complex gaming structure

 Tabletop RPG games
 Tabletop war games
 Cards
On with the show…

Demonstration of table