The OpenPTrack team is excited to announce the upcoming OPT V2 (Gnocchi) release—planned for mid-August—which provides new, fundamental features: Object tracking. For the first time, OpenPTrack will track objects in addition to the human body. V2 will add the capability to track objects based on color profile, a feature we expect to extend to other […]
A team of Indiana University researchers are using OpenPTrack to develop body-based cyberlearning tools in conjunction with Bloomington area elementary schools. The partnership aims to engage students in embodied sociodramatic play in physically interactive educational spaces, to help them learn about complex science phenomena. The collaboration’s installation supports the NSF-funded Promoting Learning through Annotation of Embodiment (PLAE) project led by Dr. […]
UCLA REMAP researcher/GSE&IS PhD student Randy Illum led 36 elementary school students in body-based art-making exercises enabled by OpenPTrack. The project was conducted over three Fridays in March 2017 at UCLA Lab School. It investigated collaboration between students using a digital body-based drawing program compared to sharpie markers. Working in groups of six, the students developed ideas for digital drawings on backgrounds chosen […]
Two open source components for Derivative’s TouchDesigner have been released for receiving person tracks streamed from OpenPTrack. The components were developed by Phoenix-based developer/stage designer Ian Shelanskey, and can be found in our GitHub repository as well as in Ian’s. The first component is a TOX using Python that improves on the original examples in the […]
UCLA REMAP researcher & GSE&IS PhD student Randy Illum presented Mixed-Reality Barriers: Person-Tracking in K-12 Schools at the IEEE Virtual Reality 2017 conference in Los Angeles on March 19. The paper, cowritten with GSE&IS PhD student Maggie Dahn, details the use of OpenPTrack in classrooms at two schools—one, a university laboratory elementary school, and the other, a public charter school. Illum’s presentation was given as part […]
On November 3, UCLA Graduate School of Education & Information Studies PhD students Randy Illum and Christine Lee presented OpenPTrack at the Museum Computer Network (MCN)’s annual conference in New Orleans, LA. Their presentation, Body Tracking Technology and Play Based Learning for Science Education, introduced OpenPTrack and the ongoing work of the STEP and iSTEP projects, which use the platform to […]
Building on the ongoing Science Through Technology Enhanced Play (STEP) project, Interactive Science Through Technology Enhanced Play (iSTEP) will begin to incorporate new OpenPTrack capabilities currently in development. STEP’s computer simulation, with OpenPTrack as the interface for body-based interaction, has been helping students understand scientific phenomena at UCLA Lab School and Indiana University. The projects’ embodied play and […]
OpenPTrack is now being used for Esteros del Ibera (EDI), an interactive installation in Buenos Aires that allows groups of visitors to explore the landscape of the protected Ibera Wetlands in northwest Argentina. A collaboration between UCLA REMAP and cheLA, EDI was built at cheLA’s complex and has been installed at Tecnopolis, the largest exhibition center in Latin America for science, […]
OpenPTrack was showcased at InterpTech 2016, a three-day conference organized by the National Association for Interpretation (NAI) and California State Parks. Held April 24-27 in Pacific Grove, California, the program focused on the application and implementation of innovative technology for interpretive projects. On April 25, Zoe Sandoval, Jeff Burke and Taylor Fitz-Gibbon presented Community, Creativity, and Technology: The Interpretive Media […]
UCLA REMAP researcher and UCLA GSE&IS doctoral student Randy Illum presented OpenPTrack to MW2016 on April 9. One of the conference’s Lightning Talks, Illum’s “OpenPTrack: Body-Based Group Tracking for Informal Learning Spaces” introduced the OpenPTrack platform and OpenPTrack projects-to-date, to generate conversation about the future of body-based interaction and visitor engagement (at museums and other cultural institutions). MW2016 […]
