After about a month of running several tests with different face recognition solutions and motion sensitive cameras, we eventually decided to implement the solution as follows:

- 2 live comedians would alternate along daily 8 hours shifts ;

- comedians were sited in front of 3 screens mounted with an ASUS XTION PRO motion and depth sensitive camera (Kinect like). Their voice was amplified and twisted through a mixing console to reinforce the devilish intonations ;

- the video flux was sent to Faceshift face recognition software that isolates up to 40 different face controllers ;

- Faceshift would then emit coordinates of the face in motion towards a real time 3D rendering engine ;

- In order for those 2 software to communicate, we had to write a dedicated C++ conversion software that operates as an Open Framework application ;

- Unity engine would receive the coordinates of the comedian face that would be applied to the original 3D assets of the Joker that had been plugged in and rigged ;

- At this point, the comedian would appear live under the shape of the Joker ;

- Unity could then push the video flux onto Google Hangout where interviews were to take place ;

- A plugin was added to Hangout so as to allow us to master which video flow to record and to show on the website ;

- Finally Google Hangout advanced solutions allowed us to automatically upload interview videos onto the dedicated Youtube channel ;

This solution made the whole experience (audience and interviewees) mobile friendly.

The outcome was over 240 seamless interviews of preselected flesh and bones candidates with a CGI rendered Joker.

The visual result was seamless and stunning giving place to a true conversation between humans and a video game character, as real as we had dreamed of in the first place.

Right from day one, the campaign generated a massive press and blogs coverage as well as 2.0 conversations. Hardcore and casual Batman fans started to seriously compete to another to have a chance to interview with the Joker.

The solution we have developed and implemented was praised by lots of our pairs. It was selected by Google to be featured on the Google Creative Sandbox.

The site was also granted a FWA SOTD among other awards.