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World Of Warcraft, Meet Kinect
A team from the USC Institute for Creative Technologies is continuing to push Kinect’s parameters by creating middleware that allows for gesture controls with PC applications.
“We are developing the Flexible Action and Articulated Skeleton Toolkit (FAAST), which is middleware to facilitate integration of full-body control with games and VR applications,” explains contributor Evan Suma. “FAAST currently supports the PrimeSensor and the Microsoft Kinect using the OpenNI framework.”
Suma explains how the FAAST system can be paired with retail PC titles. The system emulates keyboard presses as they are triggered by specific postures and gestures. In the demonstration, Suma pairs the tech with World of Warcraft, leaning forward and backward to move the character and performing additional gestures to control the camera, target an enemy, and attack. Suma says that the controls can be configured for different applications and games as need be.
The team from the Institute for Creative Technologies is planning for an open-source release and is in the process of preparing the toolkit. You can read more about their project and download FAAST here.
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