This was sent in from a reader and is something I haven’t seen before. Even though its dated a bit to last December it is still cool and shows you the diversity of things the Kinect still has in store for us. This was done by one guy alone and its pretty intuitive, this is also done for the PC version of Skyrim, in case you’re wondering. Below is the video and below that is a shortened synopsis from the developer.
Technology:
Well, gesture control is handled by the Kinect using a program called FAAST. FAAST, a middleware that operates using the OpenNI framework, converts user movements into keystrokes. Unfortunately, the openNI framework does not support voice control for the Kinect.
As a way around this, voice control in the Skyrim Kinect video is handled by a program called VAC (Voice Activated Commands). VAC allows you to pair spoken words with keystrokes.
Trying to avoid any type of controller, wires, or anything that might impede movement, I have used a RazorFish bluetooth headset to send voice commands to VAC. This device was relatively inexpensive, and probably accounts for some of the gameplay moments where a command is unrecognized.
FAAST: http://projects.ict.usc.edu/mxr/faast/
VAC: http://www.dwvac.com/
Some features that are implemented, but not used in this video include:
– saying “Left hand” or “Right hand” to equip an item to a particular hand when in menu
– saying “Hello” to activate a conversation with a store owner or NPC
– saying “Journal” to access the journal
– saying “Skills” to access the skill trees
– saying “Switch View” to change between 1st and 3rd person perspectives.
