Face Yoga Game

Idea

There’s something interesting about the unattractiveness that one goes through on the path of pursuing beauty. You put on the facial mask to moisturize and tone up your skin while it makes you look like a ghost. You do face yoga exercises in order to get rid of some certain lines on your face but at the mean time you’ll have to many awkward faces which you definitely wouldn’t want others to see. The Face Yoga Game aims at amplifying the funniness and the paradox of beauty by making a game using one’s face.

Set-up

Myoelectric sensors -> Arduino —Maxuino—> Max/MSP (gesture recognition)—OSC—> Processing (game)

Myoelectric sensor electrodes are replaced with electric fabrics so to be sewed onto a mask that the player is going wear. The face gestures that correspond to the face yoga video are pre-learnt in Max/MSP using the Gesture Follower external developed in IRCAM. When the player is making facial expressions under the mask, it will be detected in Max/MSP, the corresponding gesture number will be sent to Processing to determine if the player is performing the right gesture.

How does the game work?

The game is in the scenario of “daily beauty care” where you have a mirror, a moisturizer and a screen for game play.

Step 1: Look at the mirror and put on the mask

Step 2: Apply the moisturizer (for conductivity)

Step 3: Start practicing with the game!

The mechanism is simple, the player is supposed to do the same gesture as the instructor does in order to move the object displayed on the screen to the target place.

The final presentation is in a semi-performative  form to tell