Immersive game Carousel Dancing aims to combat loneliness through fun. The 麻豆社区 (ENU) team behind new immersive gaming technology, which aims to tackle loneliness and social isolation through dance, are showcasing it at the world鈥檚 biggest video games event.
Carousel Dancing is a revolutionary dance game which allows players in different locations to interact in virtual reality using digital dance avatars and artificial intelligence (AI). It will feature new technology, called DanceGraph, which is being developed and patented by ENU.
Date posted
21 August 2024
The Carousel project team, including colleagues from the German Research Centre for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI), Grassroots Arts and Research, Aalto University and VIVITnet, are presenting their creation at GamesCom, which officially gets underway in Germany today. Running from 21-25 August in Cologne, it is described as the world鈥檚 largest gaming event, where some of the industry鈥檚 biggest names show off cutting-edge technology.
Professor Kenny Mitchell, from ENU鈥檚 School of Computing, Engineering & the Built Environment, is Carousel鈥檚 Research Lead. This project is the latest in a career which has seen him develop games, graphics, robotics, and computer vision for the likes of Electronic Arts, Disney, and Roblox.
He said: 鈥淲e are really excited to be able to show off Carousel Dancing to the world.
鈥淲hen we started this project during the Covid pandemic 鈥� a time of real isolation for so many people 鈥� our aim was combat loneliness with dancing and fun.
鈥淭he technology we鈥檝e developed connects people online to interact in this virtual space. When other people's avatars aren't around, they will be able to connect with AI avatars instead.
鈥淎t GamesCom we will demonstrate how Carousel can transport someone from a drab bedroom to a fun virtual world 鈥� in the style of gaming hit Ready Player One.The Carousel booth at GamesCom
鈥淲e believe it has the capacity to bring about meaningful social interaction between players.鈥�
Carousel was funded by the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation program, was started as part of an effort to connect people in the digital age. It has been recognised by the EU's Innovation Radar as being noteworthy and market ready.
The project focuses on the sensory aspects of dancing to develop technologies for human interaction and the intelligent simulation and control of realistic digital dance avatars.
The finished Carousel project will be commercialised as a VR application in the coming years, with the use of a VR headset, a 3D camera, and a modern network connection.
Meanwhile, most of the technology behind DanceGraph will be open access, with the aim of promoting open science globally.
Professor Mitchell added: 鈥淲e鈥檙e looking forward to taking Carousel, and DanceGraph, even further.
鈥淲e will be taking it to market and using these advanced technologies to break down the barriers of space and time, providing entertainment and companionship.鈥�