## Inspiration It started in Farid KarImili’s computer vision class. He had us stand up in front of a camera and move while the computer learned to recognize us. We made color splashes appear and zoomed in and out with our bodies. We were supposed to be learning pattern recognition, and we were having way too much fun. Then we thought: what if a kid got to do this? Kids get sorted early into “the active one” or “the creative one.” We wanted to find out what happens when moving your body is how a kid creates.

## What it does Move & Make is a web app where kids under 10 paint with their whole body. They stand in front of a webcam, and their movements become art on screen, live:

Jump for bursts of color Punch to splash the screen Wave to draw streaks Cross your arms into an X to wipe the page clean

Nothing is scored or ranked, so nobody wins or loses. They just make things. If a kid can’t or won’t use full-body movement, mouse and touch work too.

## How we built it We used Google’s MediaPipe to track body position in real time from the webcam, then turned those movements into brush effects in the browser. The video is processed on the device and never uploaded. Paintings are saved only in the browser, with no accounts and no sharing. It tracks body position only, not identity, and kids can see exactly what the camera sees.

## Challenges we ran into Our first idea didn’t hold up. We started with finger painting, until a mentor asked, “How is this different from an iPad?” We had no answer. It stung, and it was the best thing anyone said to us. Sign language got too complicated. Another mentor suggested letting kids sign letters to make art. We loved it, but every letter needed its own color, and it got messy before it got fun. Jumping jacks broke the model. Everyone does them differently. Some people go wide, some barely lift their arms, and the model couldn’t recognize them consistently. We cut them. Bodies and lighting vary. Tracking works differently across body types, clothing, and lighting, so we made sensitivity adjustable.

## Accomplishments that we're proud of We rebuilt the whole idea around a hard question instead of defending the first version. We set a rule that if a movement is confusing, it doesn’t belong, so every move is something a kid can just do with no instructions. We built privacy in from the start: on-device video, no accounts, no sharing. We made it work without special hardware, only a webcam.

## What we learned A hard question from a mentor can be the best feedback you get. More features doesn’t mean a better product, and cutting things made ours clearer and more fun. Pattern recognition works best when the movements are simple and natural, not when you force the model to guess.

## What's next for Move and Make New movements, themed brushes like fire, galaxy, and ocean, and multiplayer art sessions where kids paint together.