‘optical camouflage,’ designed by takayuki fukatsu

with ‘optical camouflage,’ japanese interactive designer takayuki fukatsu has developed a digital invisibility cloak for kinect users.

kinect was devised for xbox 360 to permit users to interact with the device using gestures and spoken commands rather than a game controller. it therefore is designed to distinguish between a user and his background environment, and fukatsu’s invisibility hack involves overlaying that background onto the contours of the human form.

takayuki fukatsu: optical camouflage another of fukatsu’s works generates a digital mosaic in realtime from kinect camera input

a second, more recent project superimposes a graphic, mosaic effect over the camera’s feed.

takayuki fukatsu: optical camouflage

in both cases, the manipulations occur in real time. to develop the projects, fukatsu used openframeworks, the open source c++ toolkit designed to make programming more accessible to creatives.

digital media artist robert hodgin has also created an invisibility effect for kinect, using the cinder c++ library; his work is also included below.

‘optical camoflauge’ in action; the effect is most apparent after 1:30.

video test for fukatsu’s most recent work, which creates a contemporary digital mosaic

robert hodgin’s invisibility project, inspired by fukatu’s