Birds of Iowa

Client: Science Center of Iowa
Studio: Bluecadet
Role: Lead Developer
Technology: Unity, Kinect
Year: 2022


Birds of Iowa (informally dubbed “Birdnoculars”) is a computer vision interactive that tracks visitors’ body movements to detect when they raise “invisible binoculars.” Guests can then pan around the scene to spot birds hidden in the trees and grass, unlocking educational info as each species is discovered. As the main developer, I architected the core experience, implemented the real-time skeleton tracking pipeline, and led user testing sessions to iterate on and refine the interaction.

Two people, a woman and a child, standing in front of an illuminated display about prairie chickens, showing a prairie landscape with trees and blue sky.