Laser Limbo was a simple experiment in computer vision built using Processing, made in collaboration with Juan Ospina and Francesca Granato.

The camera tracks the image of a white background that’s set up in front of it, and then exaggerates the contrast between light and dark areas to deduce the difference between figure and ground. A threshold height is established by attaching two sheets of black paper to the white background — these locations are then used to form the endpoints of a red “limbo line.”

As a figure wanders into the frame, he or she must stay below the threshold height, otherwise triggering a loud buzzer sound.

Laser Limbo was created at Fabrica.