Aliens, Robots, Cheetahs, Oh My! Watch These “Face Hackers” Use Projectors To Modify Their Faces

TechCrunch ^ | 1/18/15 | Greg Kumparak

[LibWhacker]

Happy Sunday! Ready to have your mind blown?

By mixing ultra-bright projectors and advanced facial tracking with some damned fine visual design, these guys are able to use their faces as a canvas some truly wild work.

==>>>Watch on as they morph from human, to alien, to cheetah, to robot overlord on the fly.<<<==

So how does it work? To oversimplify it: an array of cameras tracks the dots on their faces, akin to the way Hollywood motion capture systems work. They then take some truly amazing texture/animation work and digitally morph it around a model of each guy’s face — essentially making a mask of light — and project it onto their skin in real time.

This is actually the second time this group — OMOTE, an artist collective out of Japan — has pulled off something along these lines. While this latest video kicks it up a notch over that first one (if only because they’re “hacking” two faces, instead of one), the first one is still absolutely worth watching:

With a bit more (totally hard and not at-all-trivial) work, it’s easy to imagine a system like this being used in live entertainment. Imagine a deadmau5/daft punk style EDM artist who uses this to morph his “mask” in real time, perhaps based on the song being played. Uhng.

[LibWhacker]

The imagination runs wild... What will be possible with this technology in the not-too-distant future?... Perhaps mini-projectors embedded in your clothing that could change your appearance on the fly, as you walk down the street?

[Flick Lives]

There was a scene in the movie “Total Recall” where (Arnold Schwartzenegger) Quaid uses a projection disguise to try get thru customs.

[Idaho_Cowboy]

Jedi mind tricks are still cheaper.