Tortellino X-perience

An original multimedia educational game was created using video along with 3D imagery of the gamers’ hands. The game used a video of a pasta maker creating the tortellini; mixing, kneading, rolling out the dough, cutting, stuffing, sealing and shaping the tortellini. Using a webcam, the gamer’s movements are followed by gesture recognition software as they view them reproduced through stop-motion video on the screen. The players imitate each step before moving on to complete the game and the tortellini. Tortellino X-perience premiered at the Shanghai World Expo in October 2010, and then had its Italian debut first at a restaurant in Bologna and then on the city's of Bologna annual festivity. The game is not on sale but the software development used in the game has educational applications. Making virtual tortellini has helped preserve a part of Bologna’s culinary history.