Inspired by a reader question (keep them coming, I love those), I got into the subject of motion tracking in Flash. Following the project Natal announcement, I expect motion tracking will become huge over the next few months. So while I’m searching for my webcam, here are a few pointers to get you started.
Neuro Productions 3D motion tracking is probably the closest to project Natal. It tracks body movements in 3 dimensions. Currently only the torso, but I’m sure more limbs are on the way. He’s already taken the next step with this infrared experiment. The code is available, but not too much documentation.
Do check out the rest of the blog, I don’t know how he does it, but Kris is one productive guy.
Justin at Soulwire probably has the best explanation of how you might want to implement motion tracking. Code is available and as with the previous blog, check it out. Many great ActionScript experiments are available.
If you’re looking for motion tracking, you might also be interested in facial recognition. Mario Kingemann optimized one algorithm so it can be run in realtime. The result is, again, motion tracking. Lot’s of interesting links to related libraries are available (but not always in ActionScript)
There are many more links and experiments out there, but these 3 are the most interesting and they should keep you (and me) busy for quite some time.