For this project, my partner and I decided to explore the world of ballet five years from now. After interviewing 8 people, who have been dancing for at least a decade and 1 professional contemporary dancer about their experiences in a ballet studio. This is what we found out:
What if ballet classes in the future have mirrors and bodysuits that help not only beginner dancers, but also professionals, improve their techniques and simultaneously prevent injuries from happening, through a fun, interactive virtual class?
The mirror has a camera that tracks the dancer's movements and alignments. The bodysuit can sense when your alignment is wrong, whether your hyperextending or slouching, the bodysuit will vibrate and correct your alignment by "moving" your body to the correct position, as if a teacher's hand is on your back or arm or leg correcting you.
Inside the camera, an IR Light Source illuminates the dancer. The sensor chip built in the camera can measure the distance light travels to each pixel in the chip. With our unique embedded imaging software, the camera will use a depth map to perceive and identify objects/ dancer in real time. This allows the user or dancer to interact with the mirror. From there, a board processor uses algorithms to process the data to render the 3D image. This will then translate the movements captured by the camera into meaningful on screen events.
For our mirror, we decided to create an interface where our user can play music, record video and see health stats. From the stills, little dots and lines would be shown on the mirror to help the user learn movement from start to finish and improve their techniques.