Ballroom Kinection

Inspiration

Lots of dance applications and games are available for the Xbox Kinect but none give in depth learning to the dances.

What it does

The Application works with the Xbox One Kinect to read the major joints of the body and track them to correct Ballroom frame. It will correct their frame by reading the distance and angles between points on the virtual skeleton projected over the live feed of the dancer. It also provides a step by step tutorial of basics moves for the various dances in the American Ballroom Style. These dances are Waltz, Tango, Foxtrot, Cha Cha, Rumba, and Swing.

How I built it

The program was coded in C++ to work with the Kinect and used a WPF front end for user interface. The front end is a variety of nest forms with navigation buttons that allow the user to choose what they wish to learn.

Challenges I ran into

The coding for the imaging and joint tracking took a considerable amount of time and finally worked after a lot of finagling. It now works in real time and with a satisfying refresh rate.

Accomplishments that I'm proud of

We are most proud that this idea was thought up the morning of the Hackathon and was completed to the best of our ability in the 24 hour timeframe. It is far from perfect, but it gives the idea that we originally thought of and leaves room for a ton of improvement and additions to features.

What I learned

Xbox Kinect API has a ton of options to use, but has limited documentation so it takes some trial and error.

What's next for Ballroom Kinection

The future for Ballroom Kinection hold many more dances, more extensive lessons into the steps, and actual analysis of the user's joint positions. The feature of having a second person be tracked on the screen may be added later on to help with frame in a partner position. There will also be a lot of optimization on the realtime feedback.