One of the hottest topics in the hi-tech world these days is augmented reality. The concept involves layers of information and media being placed over a primary surface. For example, at the recent TED conference, a Microsoft presentation demonstrated a map of Pike’s Place in Seattle with real-time live video being streamed onto highlighted areas of the location. Last year, the Yelp app on the iPhone snuck an augmented reality feature called Monocle into its design, allowing users to view layers of restaurant info and ratings as they viewed locations through the camera eye. You might even remember fictional examples of this phenomenon like in Minority Report where Tom Cruise manipulated multiple image layers with his hands. So what does this all have to do with street dancers? Well, if we could pioneer the use of augmented reality technology with the human body, we could learn a lot about how our bodies are being stretched, molded, and tested by our unique movements. (Photo above is from a Google Image Search for augmented reality.)
Bboying, popping, and locking have only been around for a little over thirty to forty years. Our first generation of street dancers are reaching their fifties and sixties. We don’t know the full extent of our physical activities on our bodies yet. Today, we go through physical conditioning, diet training, and general health maintenance. But can we use augmented reality to aid in our growth? Imagine a bodysuit that a bboy could wear as he undergoes a heavy practice session. Afterwards, he could analyze the stress and tension on his muscles, bones, and joints by consulting augmented layers of info projected from the the body suit. His heart rate, blood pressure, and blood sugar levels could also be measured. We’re seeing early examples of this kind of data gathering as seen in the Nike-iPod collaboration for runners. From the success of that project, we can see that there are folks out there who want to know more about their bodies. In the future, augmented reality involving health measurements could teach us more about the state of our physical condition before, during, and after our dancing.
What if this health data was shared? The Nike-iPod project allows runners to share their runtimes, distances covered, and other points with fellow participants online. Would the comparison of health data drive our street dancing into a competitive sport because it involves numbers? Or would we gain a deeper appreciation for how our dance affects our health since we’d see diversity in the numerical results? It would be compelling to see health data that is compared between members of a hip hop choreo team during a performance. We could appreciate the shared health experiences that the group undergoes. And if there is a member who is experiencing a health issue, we could be more aware of it and attend to their needs.
Augmented reality could also be visualized in another way, as images or media projected on the body of a dancer or in front of the dancer. Having visual information playing in front of us would alter the traditional experience of dancing. While there are some dancers who mentally see and feel images as they move, the literal experience of having images play before you could either be distracting or it could be coordinated in a way to enhance choreography concepts. What if augmented reality images were used to move a choreo team in one direction on stage? Or what if words, phrases, or visual concepts were projected onto a dancer that the audience can see as part of the performance? These are just a few of the most promising possibilities.
What remains to be seen is how far we can push this visual technology into a partnership with dancers. The health maintenance and data collection will likely be one of the initial fields we venture into as more concern is raised for the quality of life for dancers. As we explore the possibilities, it’s going to be exciting to marvel at our new views on the human body in action.
No comments:
Post a Comment