Real time system for gesture tracking in psycho-motorial rehabilitation

In the context of the research activities of the Signal and Images Lab of ISTI-CNR, a system is under development for real-time gesture tracking, to be used in active well-being self-assessment activities and in particular applied to medical coaching and music-therapy. The system uses a video camera, a FireWire digitalization board, and a computer running own developed software. During the test sessions a person freely moves his body inside a specifically designed room. The developed algorithms can extrapolate features from the human figure, such us spatial position, arms and legs angles etc. Through the developed system the operator can link these features to sounds synthesized in real time, following a predefined schema. The system latency is very low thanks to the use of Mac OS X native libraries (CoreImage, CoreAudio). The resulting augmented interaction with the environment could help to improve the contact with reality in young subjects affected by autism spectrum disorders (ASD).