Parallel Ping-Pong

Parallel Ping-Pong: Demonstrating Parallel Interaction through Multiple Bodies by a Single User

We explore a “Parallel Interaction”, where a user controls several bodies concurrently. Here we implemented “Parallel Ping-Pong” as a demonstration of such interaction. The user plays ping-pong by controlling 2 robot arms with a Virtual Reality controller, and while looking from the viewpoint of the robot arms with a Head-Mounted Display. The HMD view is composited by sliding and blending between the viewpoints according to the ping-pong ball direction. To keep the sense of agency over the robot arms (hindered by the system latency), the robot arms calculate the ball path and position themselves to hit the ball back ; all while integrating the controller motion. Throughout this demonstration, we investigate a real-life design of Parallel Interaction with multiple bodies by a single user.

Sony Computer Science Laboratories, Superception Project.
Collaboration with Embodied Media, Keio Media Design.

This research is one of the research and engineering Framework called “Superception（Super + perception）“, built by Shunichi Kasahara, a researcher at Sony CSL, with the intention of transforming and expanding human perception and cognition using computer technology.

Credit :

Kazuma Takada (Sony Computer Science Laboratories)
Midori Kawaguchi (Keio media Design)
Yukiya Nakanishi (Sony Computer Science Laboratories)
Akira Uehara (Sony Computer Science Laboratories)
Mark Armstrong (Sony Computer Science Laboratories)
Adrien Verhulst (Sony Computer Science Laboratories)
Kouta Minamizawa (Keio Media Design)
Shunichi Kasahara (Sony Computer Science Laboratories)

This work was supported by JST Moonshot R&D “Cybernetic being” Project (Grant number JPMJMS2013).

project page(Superception lab)