The idea of swapping bodies with someone is usually the reserve of fiction, a plot device used to carry a TV show or a 1980s Hollywood film starring Fred Savage and Judge Reinhold or Dudley Moore and Kirk Cameron. Or possibly brought to life by seemingly mad scientists experimenting on primates, dogs, or rats. But now, with the help of motion tracking technology and open source software, those tacky plot devices and gruesome experiments have become playful art installations. Using openFrameworks and openNI, French creative coding duo Death Buffer have created Swap Buffer, an interactive piece that allows users to control the body of another person. The two people virtually swap bodies—using motion tracking technology, the actions of one person are transposed onto the body of the other. And vice versa. The graphics look quite patchy and the fact that the bodies are digital entities is betrayed by the low polygons, but the experience allows you to live out what’s been relegated to fantasy until now.Like those Hollywood movies that always seem to come in pairs, Death Buffer aren’t the only artists creating virtual body swapping experiences with the use of interactive technology. Artist Chris O’Shea used the Xbox Kinect, customized C++ software, openFrameworks, OpenNI, and openCV to create his version of this digital puppeteering called Body Swap. The installation was exhibited at the Barbican, London earlier this month and looked quite popular with kids and adults alike. You get scanned then captured by the Kinect camera and then move about controlling a paper cut-out version of the other person.