KinectBalls: An interactive tool for ball throwing games

Abstract

We present a tool that was developed in the context of the first author's masters project. The tool implements an interactive computer game combining the real and the virtual world in a seamless way. The player interacts with the game by throwing balls towards a wall on which a virtual 3D scene is projected. Using the Kinect 3D sensor, we compute and predict the trajectory, speed and position of the ball. Upon impact with the screen, a virtual ball continues its trajectory in the virtual scene, and interacts with the objects around it using a physical and a graphical 3D engine Bullet, and Ogre3D. The prototype game has been successfully tested on a large number of people of varying ages. © Institute for Computer Sciences, Social Informatics and Telecommunications Engineering 2013.