Pantomation

While we hurdle towards a world in which our phones recognize our faces and animate Emoji's based on what they see, it's nice to look back and see some of the tech that got us here. One such entry in that historical list is the Pantomation system, aka the Electric Pantograph, which was used to track movement based on a particular chromakey and apply real-time effects in the late 70's.

This intro video walks through the history of the device and its capabilities. Interesting, much of the application throughout the video is with dance and figure movement (for educational and artistic augmentation) not something you see mentioned too often when talking about the modern day equivalents like the Kinect.

An exhaustive rundown of the device can be read here but it's best to start with that video and go from there. At the very least, it's rife with GIF fodder.