YouNokio is an interactive installation that allows people to connect to a string operated puppet. KinectSpace is an application that sends Kinect Skeleton data via OSC (Hands, Kness (x) shoulders (y) tilt (z)).
Build your own kinect marionette
Download and unzip Kinect SDK, get cinder). Install visual studio 2011 (trial) from Microsoft. Fast forward learn about c++, openGL, kinect sdk, cinder, and how to make a new Cinder project in VS.
Thanks to bantherewind it was very easy to get the skeleton data. I made a small visualization to understand how the 3d vectors work then adapted the code to limit to one active skeleton and send via OSC hands and knees (and later pan and tilt) in float values from 0 to 1.
Got bunch of L and C connectors, servo brackets and couple of servos that can take some torque. Got a USB-SSC32 board and installed it - so it can be accessed via USB, but seen as a virtual COM port. Tested it using telnet (connect at baud-rate 115200) and issued commands. If all works well, the same commands can be issued from code, in my case I chose Processing because it is more comfortable to code (but it might as well be c++)
I used Processing and the serial and oscP5 and controlp5 libraries to write a small schetch that would allow me to translate recieved OSC float values to the servo motors, while being able to visually select which OSC goes to what servo and calibrate on the fly. It did its job, but due to limited time it's not really optimized code, more of a hack.
Using L connectors and a power-drill I build a wooden holder for the servos and kinect, and in the last day purchased a marionette from local hobby shop (those things are so hard to find). I hacked a way to connect the servos and hang the puppet, and then I used the processing bits above to calibrate with some steady OSC input coming from Mixbox. Movie from the calibration process (thx Alina).
Ama, Alina, Aaron, Toma, Elena, Miruna, Teo, Ana, Vlad