The Starfish was our first interactive art work. It reacted to body movement in front of the screen, inviting the audience to dance. The piece was written in Actionscript 2 using Flash but to achieve the body shape recognition we used some open source motion detection software called EyesWeb.

The Starfish had several different internal states and external appearances, allowing us to map out a rich interaction. It was generally friendly towards the viewer, but hackled if you moved too quickly. It had a variety of moans and purrs, increasing the feeling that it was alive and responsive.

The Starfish won the John Lansdown award for Interactive Digital Art (second place) at Eurographics 2007.

The Starfish in motion can be seen on the video page