By Marc Saltzman
Imagine one day you’re being rehabilitated after an orthopedic procedure, perhaps to repair a repetitive strain injury in your wrist. Instead of wearing sensors to monitor your progress – which are cumbersome, expensive and limited – you simply move your fingers in front of what looks like a webcam and the physician or physiotherapist gleans a more accurate reading.
Or on a more recreational note, envision yourself sitting down to play a game in front of your laptop, desktop or tablet. No controller? No problem. With hands outstretched, you perform minute gestures in the air to manipulate onscreen content – be it dangling your fingers to make it rain, punching forward to break through rocks or extending a forefinger to draw an object in the virtual sand.
Both of these scenarios summarize the grand prize-winning entries in the Intel® RealSense™ App Challenge, the third annual call to developers to create next-generation experiences using an Intel® RealSense™ 3D Camera and the Intel® RealSense™ Software Development Kit (SDK) for Windows*.
“Orthosense” by David Schnare, and the game “Seed” by Alexandre Ribeiro da Silva, took top spots out of the thousands of entries from 37 countries -- up from 19 last year. With an incentive like a cash prize pool of $465,000 awarded to 21 of the winners, developers were challenged to blur the lines between human and computer interaction with a camera similar to the one already embedded in many of today’s devices, including the HP Envy* laptop and Lenovo B50 All-in-One desktop.
Utilizing a best-in-class three-dimensional depth sensor, Intel® RealSense™ technology enables new ways to interact, including 22-point hand and finger tracking and gesture recognition, facial detection and tracking, speech recognition, and even background subtraction to create a kind of green screen – without needing a green screen.
Think of it as Kinect* on steroids.
“As rapidly and profoundly as technology continues to advance, one thing remains constant: the need for more human and intuitive ways to interact with it,” says Scott Steinberg, a leading analyst, futurist, and author of Make Change Work for You. “Whether scanning in favorite objects, like children’s toys, and reprinting them on demand at grandma’s house, navigating through 3D models of homes or tradeshow floors with the wave of a hand, or using gesture controls to flip through your music collection, it’s only natural for software and hardware developers alike to look to technology solutions such as this that provide more user-friendly and accessible controls.”
In the same way Microsoft's Kinect made it possible to engage with video games, films and TV shows with the flick of a wrist, Intel RealSense technology takes it to the next level for a variety of business, health, social, family and communications-related applications, adds Steinberg.
Dean Takahashi, lead writer for GamesBeat at VentureBeat, says he’s glad to see Intel “is seeding developers to make creative demos that take gaming in a new direction,” and the company is “walking a fine line between making a cool technology that has precise controls and delivering a solution that is affordable to everyone.”
Winners of the Intel RealSense App Challenge submitted entries in one of five categories: Collaboration, Open Innovation, Learning, Interact Naturally, and Gaming.
To learn more, please visit the Winner’s Showcase website.
A brief look at some highlights:
Orthosense
A collaborative effort between the UK and Canada, Orthosense uses Intel RealSense technology to identify, calculate and record hand and wrist range movements for orthopedic specialists and surgeons. The goal is to measure range of movement of patients as they rehabilitate from hand and wrist problems. With greater accuracy, comfort and speed, both patient and practitioner receive objective data to measure progress.
“Orthosense algorithms provided the positions of the joints and calculated the exact angle of any given joints at any given time,” explains Kinetisense Inc. chief officer David Schnare. “No need to use plain-old tools or expensive wearable equipment [as] the patient simply places their hand in front of the sensor and all the necessary calculations are performed with remarkable accuracy and speed.”
“The best part,” Schnare continues, “is the fact the range of motion identification is performed in less than half a second. The patient simply places their hand in front of the sensor and all the necessary calculations are performed with remarkable accuracy and speed.”
Schnare says the company’s goal is to take advantage of “the affordable Intel RealSense camera to produce affordable human movement analysis software that’s widely adopted by practitioners.”
Orthosense was awarded Grand Prize in the Open Innovation category.
Seed
Grand Prize winner in the Gaming category, Seed challenges players to help guide a floating seed though it’s journey to reforest a devastated land. Fitting, perhaps, as the developer is based in Brazil, which has one of the highest deforestation rates in the world.
Using intuitive gestures in front of the 3D camera, players control the environment to help the seed along, such as removing obstacles and making it rain.
“Intel RealSense technology gives a certain ‘magic’ feeling to the game since the player’s hand movements produce an instant response in the seed,” explains Alexandre Ribeiro, co-founder of AnimaGames. “Using the hand and fingers position detection system, we could develop the game’s core mechanic that works as a ‘guessing game,’ where the player has to think and perform a gesture that matches the required action.”
Virtual 3D Video Maker
First place winner in the Collaboration category, Virtual 3D Video Maker – as the name suggests – lets you record yourself as a 3D hologram for a more immersive communication experience. Along with playing it back in front of a number of digitally imported scenes of your choosing, you can also change the camera position over the course of the playback to add an extra dimension to your video blogs, messages or even real-time chats.
“I used both face direction and voice recognition to create a context-based, hands-free interface,” says Lee Bamber, CEO of The Game Creators in North Wales, UK. “I also used the real-time depth data from the camera to create a 3D representation of the user and store this data along with the real-time audio to create a true 3D recording that can be played back from different angles.”
About the Author
Marc Saltzman is one of North America's most recognizable and trusted tech experts, specializing in consumer electronics, business technology, interactive entertainment and Internet trends. Marc has authored 15 books since 1996 and currently contributes to nearly 50 high-profile publications in North America, including USA Today, MSN, Yahoo!, Costco Connection, Toronto Star, Movie Entertainment, TheLoop.ca, Telus Talks Business and Rogers Connected. Marc hosts various video segments, including "Gear Guide" (seen at Cineplex movie theaters and sister chains across Canada) and is a regular guest on CNN, CNN International and CTV's Canada AM. Marc also hosts "Tech Talk," a radio show on Montreal’s CJAD 800, part of Bell Media.
Follow Marc on Twitter: @marc_saltzman.
Find everything you need to know about how to develop Intel® RealSense™ applications at the Intel® Developer Zone.