Automatic Spotlight

Automatic Spotlight explores the possibility of engaging inactive spaces. Working with a Microsoft Kinect sensor, I wanted to create an interaction that was physically reactive, as opposed to screen-based.

This project was built with a Microsoft Kinect, Martin Mac 2000 intelligent light fixture, openFrameworks, DmxUsbPro, and Marek Bereza’s version of Eric Sjodin’s cppGlue/DmxPro.

  • The final form of this program features a calibration tool to map the moving light to an n-row/column grid, and then uses those coordinates to point to a person tracked using simple image analysis with openCV. Though a Kinect was used to capture the image data, a regular camera imput might work just as well.
  • The DmxUsbPro which was used to send DMX packages to the moving light fixture.