Overview, Background, Development of the Algorithms, Determination of Board Positioning and Orientation , Segmentation of Individual Game Squares, Determination of Square Status, Implementation into Checkers Program, Conclusion.

Background

Current video gaming systems have vastly improved graphically with the advancement of semiconductor technology. Up until recent times, interaction through these games has been through the use of joysticks, keyboards, mice and control pads. However, the introduction of motion-based gaming, such as the Nintendo Wii, which utilises accelerometers to detect movement has bought new attention to the development of new controller methods.

The relevance of this is that image processing has potential to become an integral part of the gaming industry, which is a major sector in terms of business, much in the same way as the film and music industry.

The most promising example of this was the Natal Project that was announced by Microsoft at the E3 conference 2009. This new ‘controller’ uses two close cameras to observe players and, with advanced image processing algorithmns, can capture the motion of them.

The project explores the potential of image processing in gaming.