

FoolMoon 2014: The Puppetron

FoolMoon 2014: The Puppetron

The five-person team of Vodo Jumato annually collaborates on a large-scale interactive projection in downtown Ann Arbor. This project, my first with the team, was part of a local event called FoolMoon.

The Puppetron is a game developed in openFrameworks and targeted toward children. It uses OpenNI library to stream skeleton data from Kinect (1st generation). The skeleton is then mapped to one of four puppets: a robot, a sock monkey, a candy man and a fluffy monster. During the event, each child takes on the form of one of the puppets through the application’s green-screen background. The puppet-characters, under control of the child, collect points by bouncing and trying to hold on to as many objects as possible. Box2D adds physics and gravity to the scene. Resolume is used to apply the background and add special effects such as storms in real-time, thus allowing for a more complete, story-like, experience.

The best way to experience the event is through my Ignite talk below.


Media credit: Donald Harrison