The Augmented Reality Ballet

The Ballet Font Project combines ballet with augmented reality.  I assume they’ll have big screens showing the combined real time dance with the foot drawn fonts.  The project is a rare cross breed between geekdom and high-end culture.

Used watch batteries and infrared LEDs to create a 2D motion tracking system. We taped these little devices to ballet dancers and had then perform moves which formed letters, which will be used in a headline font called “Ligne”.

This video shows a few letters being performed where we’ve used to the tracking data to overlay FX. The stroke width is controlled by the speed of movement. We’ll be doing a live demonstration at the Armory in Portland, Oregon on Thursday, July 1, 2010. Participants will be able to use the tracking devices to do real time augmented reality.

This project is the brainchild of Weiden + Kennedy’s WK12. Oregon Ballet Theatre contributed the choreography and dancing talent. I developed three versions of software called “Chireo” (chirography + choreography). “capture” did the initial motion and video capture. “augment” let us clean up the data and export the font and rendered videos. “live” is the real time motion tracking / augmented reality software we’ll be using at the demo. Todd Greco here at Fashionbuddha helped on the visual FX in the “augment” and “live” versions.