02 — VECTRA

VECTRA.

A pop-up arcade for four. Projector and camera hang from one stand above a round play field – you steer just by where you stand. No controller, no manual, set up and packed away in minutes.

Type: Bachelor thesis, Interactive Media
Place · time: TH Augsburg, Faculty of Design · Werkschau January 2025
Role: Everything: concept, games, tracking, sound, rig
Tools: JavaScript · TouchDesigner · Node.js/OSC · 3D-Druck/3D printing

Supervised by Prof. Andreas Muxel and Prof. Dr. Thomas Rist. Photos: Oliver Schunn. Video: Bastian Rögele.

Idea

Play without learning it.

Bringing computer vision and games together: a multiplayer experience anyone gets right away. The play field sits between the players so nobody blocks the projection – a circle that brings everyone to the table, just on the floor.

Thought of like a pop-up store: quickly set up at fairs or in public spaces, where people join in by chance.

Three games, one menu

Arcade classics, made round.

Three games after 1970s arcade titles, each for four players on a circle. Cyan is you, red are your lives.

VECTRA menu: a ring with the game names and voting arrows for four players — Menu – vote by standing. After 15 seconds a weighted draw decides.

PitPong: four curved cyan paddles around a ball, three red hearts per player — PitPong – Pong for four. Lose all hearts and your side turns into wall.

RoadRage: four road segments with a cyan car each and red hearts — RoadRage – dodge on your own lane.

SpaceShield: a green planet in the middle, four cyan ships at the edge and red invaders — SpaceShield – defend the planet together.

Process

What didn't work – and what did.

Pose tracking. The obvious start – but the models only recognise people from the front. From above, upside down: nothing.
Blob tracking. A single-colour floor mat and even light – then outlines are enough to find four players.
Browser → TouchDesigner. Tracking moves to TouchDesigner for performance; a small OSC bridge hands the positions to the JavaScript game.
Miniature → full size. First a model with canvas and magnets, then the real rig: weighted aluminium feet and a 3D-printed housing for projector and camera.

Miniature: a small canvas play field with the game projected onto it — Miniature: canvas and magnets instead of players

Miniature from above: the round play field with magnet pieces — The circle, small scale

Top-down webcam image: players around the projected circle on the blue mat — What the camera sees – from above

Black 3D-printed housing holding projector and camera — Printed housing for projector and camera

The printed housing parts laid out next to each other — The housing's parts

Projector and camera seen from below against the round window of the hall — Projector and camera from below

Close-up of the grey 3D-printed mount with visible print layers — The printed mount

The camera unit at the end of the boom — Camera on the boom

Two brushed aluminium boxes weighting the stand's feet — Weighted feet for the stand

The rig with its long boom in the empty round hall, blue mat with the white circle below — Set up in the hall

A person stands next to the tall rig in the empty hall, for scale — The rig at full size

The menu projected on the floor, players' legs around the circle — Werkschau, January 2025

The thesis

Flip through it.

The thesis as PDF is coming.

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