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Watch a dance performance change in real time with facial projection mapping

Watch a dance performance change in real time with facial projection mapping

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INORI (prayer)” is a dance performance video that uses real-time facial projection mapping to change the look of the dancer’s faces. Over the course of about one minute, the dancers are made to look like skulls with empty eye sockets, big-toothed clowns, and terrifying dolls with their jaws unhinged.

As Prosthetic Knowledge points out, the project is a collaboration between artist Nobumichi Asai, the design studio WOW, and the University of Tokyo’s Ishikawa Watanabe Laboratory. The video features the dance duo Aya Bambi.

The “making of” video above describes how the University of Tokyo designed a high-speed projector that projects 1,000 frames per second — what they say is the world’s fastest. By using the projector alongside a 3D-mapping system and precise sensor tracking, the video creators were able to change the look of the dancers and the aesthetics of the video in real time.

You can see the final performance below.