Scan the collection
Bring an object in as a Gaussian splat or a mesh. Cut away the table it stood on, match its light to the gallery, and save a small file that the collection website can show.
3DGeoImportSPZ3DGeoSplatCrop3DGeoExportSOG
Scans →Kinematic / Who it's for / Museums and installations
Exhibits that answer your visitors.
A camera, a depth sensor or a microphone notices the person in front of the piece, and the picture, the sound and the light respond. Build it in one free app, then leave it running for the whole season.
Exhibit designersMedia artistsMuseum AV teamsCreative technologists
The graph behind it
- InputVideoFile
- LocalAIImageToBodyPose
- ChannelDataLag
- 3DGeoTransform
- 3DGeoSceneRenderToImage
Here a video file stands in for the gallery camera. In the room, a webcam node takes its place.
Basket scan by Marc (superspl.at), CC BY 4.0.Your work
Exhibit work in Kinematic.
The jobs that come up on every exhibit, from the first scan to the visitor who walks up. Each one is a handful of nodes in the same graph.
01
The content.
The objects, the places and the film the room is built around.
Rebuild a place that is gone
Model a temple, a room or a street from boxes, one piece at a time, then render it for the exhibit film or show it live on the gallery wall.
Modeling →Cut the exhibit film
Clips on tracks, trimmed, faded and titled. Render it to one file, or play it straight from the timeline on the gallery screen.
VideoArrangementPlayerOutputVideoFile
Video →02
The visitor.
Cameras and depth sensors that notice people. Every model downloads once and then runs on your own machine, so nothing filmed in the gallery leaves the room.
Notice a visitor step up
Set a few boxes in the air in front of a depth camera. Each one fires when someone steps in, again when they leave, and reports how close they are.
DepthCameraCaptureInterfaceDepthZoneTrigger
Depth cameras →Read every body in the room
Bodies, hands and faces from a plain webcam, with a running count of the people in frame. For a busy foyer, a crowd counter estimates how many are there and never identifies anyone.
LocalAIImageToWholeBodyPoseLocalAIImageToCrowdDensity
Tracking →
Know when someone is looking
A webcam estimates where a visitor is looking. Glances land in zones you set, and a separate trigger fires when they look straight at the camera.
LocalAIImageToGaze
Cameras →
Fire a cue with a hand
Thumbs up, open palm, fist and more arrive as named triggers. Wire one straight to a scene change, a sound or a light cue.
LocalAIImageToHandGesturesDmxCueStack
Gestures →
Familiar work, done here
Projection onto walls, models and rooms.
Pin a picture to a wall, wrap it around a column, cut the windows out of a facade, and blend several projectors into one picture. It all lives in the graph, so a visitor, a sound or a schedule can move any of it.
- Quads and freeform shapes, each filled with its own pictureProjectionMapper
- Corner pin, grid warp and masks for every surfaceImageCornerPinImageGridWarpImagePolygonMask
- Blend projectors into one wide picture with no visible joinProjectorLayoutImageEdgeBlend
- Line projectors up through a camera, then even out their brightnessStructuredLightCalibrationRadiometricCalibration
- Light only the visitor: a depth camera cuts them out of the roomDepthCameraCaptureInterfaceLatchImageMath
What you gain: sound
Sound in the same file as the picture.
The soundscape, the voice detector and the picture share one graph. A visitor speaking can bend the shape on the wall, and an echo canceller keeps the piece from hearing its own speakers.
- Hear the visitor, not the speakers: the echo canceller strips your own soundtrack from the micLocalAIAudioEchoCancelLocalAIVoiceDetect
- Captions on your own machine: speech to text, then translated into another languageLocalAIAudioTranscribeLocalAITextTranslate
- Read text aloud with a local voice, with no account and no keyLocalAITextToSpeechAudio
- Circle a sound around four speakers and add the reflections of a roomAudioAmbisonicEncodeAudioAmbisonicDecodeAudioRoomSimAudioPlaybackOperation
- Let the level or the beat drive any number in the graphAudioEnvelopeFollowerAudioOnsetDetect
What you gain: one file
Scans, simulations and light in one file.
The scanned object, the fire on the LED wall and the moving lights that follow a visitor can all sit in the same graph. Nothing is exported from one app to the next, so a change to the scan or the sim reaches the wall while the piece runs.
- Take the shot-in light out of a scan, then light it like the gallery3DGeoSplatDelight3DGeoSplatProbeRelight
- Fire, smoke, liquids and particles in the same graph, feeding any screen, projector or light3DGeoFluidSimpleSolver3DGeoFluidRender
- Pixel-map any picture onto an LED wall, with more than 1,500 fixture profiles built inImageToDmxArtNetSendInterface
- Moving heads that find a visitor and stay on themLocalAIImageToBodyPoseDmxFollowSpotEngine
Opening day, and every day after
Run it all season.
An installation is judged on the day nobody is watching it. These are the parts that keep a piece running for months on its own.
A day in the gallery
- Before the doors openThe machine starts, logs in, and the piece opens full screen with the edit keys off and the screens kept awake.
- The projector comes on lateSwitch it on after the computer. Within a couple of seconds the picture moves to it.
- Opening timeThe scheduler fires the opening look at the time you set, on the days you pick.
- Something falls overA crash restarts the piece on its own. A stalled graph is ended by the watchdog and comes back the same way.
- Closing timeHalf an hour before sunset, or at a time you choose, the lights dim and the piece settles for the night.
- OvernightThe log starts a new file each day and drops the oldest ones, so months of running never fill the disk.
$ kinematic piece.kin --kiosk --display 1 --no-controls \ --restart-on-panic 10 --watchdog 30s --health-port 9797 \ --error-strip off --log-file /var/log/kinematic/piece.log --log-keep 14
Add it to the login items on a Mac, or a desktop session service on Linux, and it starts with the machine.
DmxSchedulerInputIdle
Check on it from the office
A health check on a port reports whether the piece is running, which frame it is on and how many frames it dropped, for whatever watches the building.
Many screens, one moment
Align the timeline to the wall clock and machines that started at different times still show the same frame. Keep their clocks set over the network.
No error text in front of visitors
Turn the error strip off and nothing is painted over the picture. Errors still go to the log and the health check.
Sealed off the network
The tracking models download once. After that, an offline launch never waits on a download.
One file, set per machine
Pass a value at launch, such as the room name or which screen it is, and every machine runs the same graph file.
An attract loop when nobody is there
For a kiosk with a mouse, keys or a controller, an idle timer brings the attract loop back after a quiet spell.
How it fits
Your gear and your files.
What plugs in, what it drives, and the files that come and go. Every entry is on the full list of what Kinematic works with.
Reads the room
- Webcams and capture cards
- Bodies, hands, faces, gaze and crowd size.
- Depth cameras
- Orbbec Astra, Gemini and Femto. RealSense-style cameras on Linux.
- Microphones and sound cards
- With an echo canceller for the room.
- Touch screens
- Every finger at once, with where it landed and how hard it presses.
- Sensors and dev boards
- Anything on a USB serial port, such as a sensor on a dev board.
- Phones and tablets
- A touch page served from the graph, or TouchOSC.
Drives the room
- Projectors and screens
- A window of its own on any monitor, full screen, found again when the projector is plugged in late.
- LED walls and DMX lights
- Art-Net, sACN and USB DMX adapters, with more than 1,500 fixture profiles.
- Speakers
- Stereo, or a ring of four from ambisonics.
- Other machines
- Video over NDI, or Syphon on a Mac. It can also serve its output over RTSP to a player.
- Show control
- QLab and lighting consoles over OSC, MIDI Show Control, LTC and MIDI timecode.
- The web
- HTTP requests, WebSocket servers and webhooks, both ways.
Files
Opens
glTF, FBX, USD, OBJ, PLY, STLSplats: SPZ, PLY, SOG, .splatMP4, MOV, MKV, WebMPNG, JPEG, TIFF, EXRWAV, FLAC, MP3, OGGCSV and JSON tablesMVR and GDTF lightingFonts
SavesH.264, H.265, ProRes, VP9glTF, FBX, USD, OBJScans as SOG or .splat for the webScans as .usdz for Apple devicesPNG and EXR sequencesWAV, FLAC, AIFFPatch lists for the crew
Everything it works with →
Where to start
Tutorials and demos.
Short lessons that end with something working, and demos that come with the app. Open a demo, take it apart, and keep what you need.
Tutorials
All the docs →
TutorialMap moving patterns onto three panels10 min
TutorialLine up a projection on a wall from the side7 min
TutorialPlay a video on a wall of LED lights9 min
scan by Niantic Labs, MIT licenseTutorialGive a 3D scan a golden glow10 min
TutorialMake a visual that pulses to your music12 min
TutorialClean up a field recording8 minDemos
Browse every demo →
WebcamWhole body skeleton overlayEvery point on the body over the live camera, 133 in all, with a count of the people in frame.In the Demos browser
Motion-detect swirl overlayA swirl painted only where something moves, with a short trail behind it.In the Demos browser
WebcamGesture triggerThumbs up, open palm or fist, each a named trigger for a scene, a sound or a light.In the Demos browser
WebcamInk roomThe room redrawn as live ink on warm paper. Point it at anything.In the Demos browser
Projection mapper multi-textureStripes, dots and a star, each fitted to its own panel in the mapper.In the Demos browser
GPUscan by Niantic Labs, MIT licenseSplat turntableA carved lizard on a low plinth, turning slowly on the spot.In the Demos browser
Webcam, GPUScan a room by walking through itWalk the camera through a room and it builds itself out of colored points.In the Demos browser
WebcamRoom linesThe edges of walls, frames and shelves, traced live over the camera picture.In the Demos browserBefore you plan the install
What it does not yet do.
Better to know now. Something here would stop your exhibit? Reach out.
- Kinect and ZED camerasThese depth cameras are not supported yet. Orbbec cameras work, and RealSense-style cameras on Linux.
- TUIO touch tablesThere is no TUIO node yet. A touch screen the system sees works today.
- Projector powerNo PJLink control to switch projectors on and off from the graph yet.
- Spout on WindowsVideo sharing between apps on Windows is on the roadmap. NDI works on every platform, and Syphon on a Mac.
- Screens kept awake on LinuxThe kiosk keeps screens awake on macOS and Windows. On Linux, turn screen blanking off in the system settings.
- Daylight savingThe scheduler does not change its clock for daylight saving. Update its offset on the day the clocks change.
- Large speaker ringsAmbisonic sound decodes to stereo or four speakers today, not to bigger rings of speakers.
Your next exhibit
Download Kinematic.
Free. No account, no license key and no seat count, so every exhibit machine in the building can run it, even for commercial use. macOS, Windows and Linux, with experimental Raspberry Pi support. Nothing to renew halfway through the run.