Hello, Internet 👋🏼
Boy have I just discovered the coolest internet thing since sliced bread memes. You probably guessed it, I’m talking about MIT Media Lab’s Scratch Pose Blocks extension add-on situation that enables you to use extensions like face tracking, Google's poseNet and Teachable Machine. You didn’t guess that? From the title? Oh, I see... I don’t see actually. I very much lost my train of thought. Where are we?
If you are like me and have been trying to learn how to use Tensorflow’s amazing machine learning libraries… without much luck, then this is the perfect tool for you!
This is the Duplo equivalent of machine learning for beginners who aren’t quite ready to build a Japanese Lego House. Sorry, that was a terrible analogy. I have been trying to finish this article since March and I am just trying to push through.
The program that I used to create my game was developed by MIT Media Lab as an extension to their Scratch game. Scratch was created over 10 years ago as a way for kids and internet nerds to create games and interactive content using code blocks. Hang on, have you figured out that I have no idea what I’m talking about yet? Because I’m not sure how I can continue writing about something that I only understand 75%.
Now that I have given you a detailed and descriptive overview of what AI Blocks are (sorry, I wrote this sentence before I butchered the intro), allow me to introduce my cute little hand pong soccer game that uses poseNet to track your hands! Watch it on my YouTube Channel:
How I made PosePong that is actually Pose Hand Soccer
Step 1: I did the ‘Pong Game’ tutorial that is in the Scratch library to learn how to make a Pong game
Step 2: I added the’ Body Sensing’ Extension by clicking the ‘Add Extension’ button at the bottom left-hand side of the screen
Step 3: Kept playing around with blocks and sprites and operations until the game worked… almost like a game would work in the real world. It was a real trial and error process.
Step 4: I quit my UX Design job to become a Scratch Developer
Step 5: Instantly regretted step 4 and begged for my job back
Step 6: Continued to develop scratch games into my late 60s and retired in a shack on the coast of the Korean Peninsula
Step 7: So I don’t know why I made steps because this is not a tutorial and these are also really unhelpful steps
If you can figure out how to make cooler things, let me know! Let’s have a chat about it via email.
If you managed to read this article without gently hitting your computer in a fit of rage and forcing it to topple slightly to the left or right, then find me on these other internet websites:
My Blog: https://koreanpicnic.com/
My Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hellojoquinn/
My YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/JoSoKo/videos
