THE SKOOLZ: SANTA - Just hanging around. (Face Recognition #2)

I've just created a Santa Clause the reacts to being looked at.
To do this I expanded old and wrote new code to detect faces.
Under the hood I am able to detect a face, the amount of faces looking at the screen, the general distance of the person(s) and their position(s). With a little math and knowing the position of the camera it will be able to accurate determine the distance and height of a person looking at the camera.
This is useful for determining whether it's an adult or small child doing the looking.

In this example, which can be left running, Santa is just existing. He will do random things, dance, run about, complain, tell the time etc but whenever someone actually pays attention to him, he will run up to the screen and look that person in the eye. If the person gets very close, he will lean in closer to the camera himself making full eye contact. He'll likely say something amusing, do a wiggle, wave or point. Most likely he'll say a big Merry Christmas.

I spent a little time creating this for a couple of reasons. Obviously the time of year, but also this will add another form of interaction to our apps. Making them engaging and magnetic. It was part of the work I had planned in my original manifesto and now we can can create characters, even historical ones, that will animate and actually look at the children. Perhaps in time even take its cues from them.

This technology has existed using more complex cameras such as a 3D Kinect but rarely with a simple webcam.

Again I will add to the code over time. And a character might soon be able to ask questions, spot a shake of the head or a nod, even a smile or other emotion.

In short, this is just a fun piece but the technology opens up new avenues for us.

This can even work through an actual window playing on a big screen!