Online-Gym: a 3D virtual gymnasium using Kinect interaction

Online-Gym: a 3D virtual gymnasium

using Kinect interactionFernando Cassola | Leonel Morgado | Hugo Paredes | Benjamim

Fonseca | Paulo Martins INESC TEC / UTADFausto de Carvalho - PT Inovação

21-23 November, 2013Vila Real - Portugal

Topics

• Interactive technologies and physical activity

• Motion Capture Devices

• The Online-Gym project

• System architecture

• Conclusions

• Future work

Interactive technologies and physical activity

• Videogames: high potential to promote physical exercise

• Exergames: provide to the user the development of sensory and motor skills

• “playing exergames could become one of the most popular, engaging, and health-promoting homework assignments of the twenty-first century”- Staiano and Calvert (2011)

Interactive technologies and physical activity

• Many elderly refuse to participating in regular training sessions outside their homes

• Exergames can help motivate elderly to exercise more

• 3D platforms: multi-user, collaborative, shared virtual environments, the “being there” presence

Motion Capture Devices

+ cheaper+ intuitive

The Online-Gym project

• Online-Gym is an exploratory project prototyping an online 3D platform based on virtual worlds that allows users to interact with the system through the use of a motion capture device such as Microsoft Kinect

The Online-Gym project  RINIONS FAAST NUILIB

Pre-defined movements No Yes Yes

Integration with Second

Life / OpenSimulator

Viewer adaptado

(pequena

extensão)

É necessário

implementar nos

viewers toda a

reprodução dos

gestos

É necessário

implementar nos

viewers toda a

reprodução dos

gestos

Source-code OpenAnnounced but not

availableOpen

SoftwareMicrosoft Kinect

SDK / OpenNIOpenNI

Microsoft Kinect

SDK / OpenNI

System architecture

Conclusions• The Online-Gym project has a lot of potential for users who

are isolated, dispersed geographically or with reduced mobility.

• We should be careful particularly in the synchronization of the movements and their impact on the network for other users.

• The integration between virtual 3D platforms and motion capture devices have a huge margin for improvement and there is potential for development and deployment of such services.

Future work

• Need to further study the solutions for remote transmission of gestures made in front of the Kinect.

• How can we synchronize the movements made by each user physically distant.

• The issue of the platform independence

Online-Gym: a 3D virtual gymnasium

using Kinect interactionFernando Cassola | Leonel Morgado | Hugo Paredes | Benjamim

Fonseca | Paulo Martins INESC TEC / UTADFausto de Carvalho - PT Inovação

21-23 November, 2013Vila Real - Portugal