Space Runner

Inspiration

To recreate a virtual simulation of the Japanese game show Human Tetris accessible to anyone on the web.

What it does

This is an endless runner prototype which captures body movements from the waist up, the game starts in third-person mode, but can be adjusted to first-person mode, a camera test is done to ensure proper positioning and speed increases over time.

How I built it

We used three.js to build the endless runner and poseNet from TensorFlow to capture webcam motion.

Challenges I ran into

Creating a 3D simulation on a non-GPU friendly laptop is the least of the problems. We had to do all the designing of the software on Windows Ubuntu, lots of cross-scripting errors, importing custom layers was a pain, we ran into issues early with infinite logic and rendered walls that will eventually crash the system within 15 seconds of playing. We also had trouble mapping it in the first-person view, so we substituted with body like shaped objects. Eventually, we got the head to work fairly well in third person mode and decent in first-person mode.

Accomplishments that I'm proud of

Rendered a playable 3D endless runner with two completely new stacks.

What I learned

How to create, position, and think like an OOP in three.js design, calculated manual algorithm for collisions - no built-in libraries.

What's next for Space Runner

The sky is the limit. right now it is still in its infancy, but future features can include more hands-on activity such as smashing asteroids.

Built With

• ml5.js
• posenet
• tensorflow
• three.js