The most of the Kinect-actions for Playmaker, added to “Kinect with MS-SDK“- and “KinectExtras with MsSDK“-packages are based on the code of Kinect-to-Playmaker actions, created by Jonathan O’Duffy and Andrew Jones from the HITLab-Australia.These Playmaker actions are part of their project ‘Fantasy to Reality’. With this article I’d like to give all the credits and my special thanks to them! Here is some information about the work and the projects these great guys do.

Fantasy to Reality
Fantasy to Reality (FTR) is a collection of HITLab students, current and past, who have come together to learn and teach each as they create Virtual and Augmented Reality experiences. More information about FTR can be found here: http://fantasytoreality.com.au/

The HITLab
The HITLab is a collection of laboratories around the world, who collaborate together to solve some of the world’s most challenging problems in the area of Virtual and Augmented Reality. The first HITLab was founded in Washington USA by the grandfather of Virtual Reality, Thomas Furness in 1989. The second HITLab was founded in Christchurch, New Zealand by Thomas Furness and Mark Billinghurst. Mark is also one of the two original creators of Augmented Reality. The third HITLab was found in Launceston, Tasmania, Australia, by Thomas Furness and is the youngest of the labs. Tom is also looking into setting up more HITLabs around the world.

For more information about the HITLabs you can find them here: http://www.hitlab.utas.edu.au/wiki/Home

A Video is Worth One Thousand Words
Watch the video below (prepared for treatment of Arachnophobia) and you’ll see right away how the fantasy becomes reality at home and almost every desk nowadays, without expensive film studios, large teams for special effects and budgets in millions of dollars: