A special spin-off edition of Sega's Dance Dance Revolution that features the various dance sequences from Michael Jackson's classic video clips.

This version also uses a full body motion sensor system instead of just floor pads for obvious reasons.

Inspired by PotatoStew's link from my previous idea "Dance Move Subtitles".
-- mrkillboy, Dec 12 2001

Dance Move Subtitles http://www.halfbake..._20Move_20Subtitles
[mrkillboy, Dec 12 2001, last modified Oct 04 2004]

Miralab http://www.miralab....IRA/MIRALabHtml.htm
A Swiss research lab I recommend thoroughly. [Aristotle, Dec 12 2001, last modified Oct 04 2004]

Dance Dance Revolution http://www.salon.co.../ddr/?CP=RDF&DN=310
A little history, Salon.com style. [bristolz, Apr 30 2002, last modified Oct 04 2004]

Eyetoy groove http://www.gamerank...mlpages2/918821.asp
PS2 dance game that takes it imput via a camera. [st3f, Oct 04 2004]

Consumer motion capture is the holy grail of a lot of computer games interface work. If you want to examine into this area I recommend looking through the Mirlab site (see link), as this lab does a lot of work in this field.

Personally I would recommend doing motion capture by smearing custard over yourself at key points and track them using a dessert-sensitive camera.
-- Aristotle, Dec 12 2001


I vote against purely because DDR and the rest of the Bemani line is made by KONAMI, not SEGA. All Sega ever made (to my knowledge) in the purely music-based genre was Crackin DJ.
-- Lank, Apr 30 2002


Dance pad is cheap to produce, it's a few sensors, not position DSP chip, etc. On the other side, 3d position sensors is A WAY TOO MUCH expensive. I agree, the idea is cool but the technology is not quite ready for it.
-- mading25, Jan 21 2003


Lank: Don't forget Space Channel 5.
-- xer0negative, Jun 27 2004


3d position sensors are not only expensive. They can be quite tricky to work with. I've written programs that use them before, and the only reason I had access to them was because I was working at a big research institution. I don't think your average Nigel could afford them. As to ease of programming, you have to calibrate them just right every time a new player starts to account for size differences. For the game to be fun and not frustrating, the calibration would have to take the typical proportions of the human body into account and judge "right" or "wrong" moves according to that and the position of various body parts in space. If only position is taken into account, there's potential to have the "right" move and still get marked wrong.
Just some feasibility thoughts.
-- evilmathgenius, Jun 28 2004


EyeToy has a small, cheap, colour camera which detects motion reasonably well. It basically just detects rapid colour/brightness change.

If the particiants were willing, it would probably be relatively easy to work out approximate limb positions. You could for example attach coloured bands to them at strategic points, and have a contrasting background.
-- Loris, Jun 28 2004



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