A multi-camera framework for interactive video games

Abstract

We present a framework that allows for a straightforward development of multi-camera controlled interactive video games. Compared to traditional gaming input devices, cameras provide players with many degrees of freedom and a natural kind of interaction. The use of cameras can even obsolete the need for special clothing or other tracking devices. This partly accounted for the success of the currently popular single-camera video games like the Sony Eyetoy. However, these games are fairly limited in the use of 3D scene information. Using multi-camera setups, this limitation can be surpassed, but typically many different image processing and computer vision techniques are involved. Our framework divides multi-camera based games into basic algorithms that are easily combinable into several sequentially executed stages. Therefore the amount of effort to develop new games can significantly be reduced. The capabilities of our framework are demonstrated with a number of conceptual games, proving that multi-camera controlled video games can be created with off-the-shelf hardware.