Interactive Dance with Visual Background Recomposition using BLE Beacons

This paper introduces an interactive dance enabled through the innovative concept of a body area network. By strategically attaching Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) beacons to various parts of the dancer’s body, this novel study firstly leverages signal strength measurements from lightweight, small-scale, and cost-effective beacon nodes for proximity monitoring between the dancer’s body parts and the identification of choreographic units. Secondly, his enables a holistic dancer-centric interactive dance system to empower performers to actively participate in designing visual effects, cultivating a more profound artistic engagement. Lastly, the practicality and viability of the proposed system are demonstrated through a live performance, offering invaluable insights from both the dancers’ and the audience’s perspectives. This methodology employs a mobile device as a gateway, capturing signal strength from beacon nodes and analysing dynamic received signal strength values. Algorithms are designed to use these values to monitor the proximity between body parts, and subsequently, identify a curated collection of choreographic units. The processing outcomes contribute to the adaptive recomposition of visual backgrounds that dynamically respond to the dancers’ movements.