Dr. Hämäläinen studied engineering and signal processing at the Helsinki University of Technology and obtained a second master’s degree from Media Lab of University of Art and Design Helsinki. For his master’s degree thesis, he created a game called Kukakumma
Muumaassa (2001). It was the first game where you could express yourself as the avatar using both body movements and voice.
Later he developed the groundbreaking Kick Ass Kung-Fu (2004-2007), an immersive game installation that transformed players real-life kicks and punches into computer character’s movements. Kick Ass Kung-Fu also laid the foundation for Kung-Fu Live (2010, PlayStation 3) and Kung-Fu High Impact (2011, Xbox 360 Kinect), developed by Virtual Air Guitar Company, which Hämäläinen joined as the CTO after finishing his doctoral thesis.
In 2012 Hämäläinen joined Aalto University in the capacity of a professor and has conducted research in exergame design, digitally augmented sports and computer vision with his research group.
PERTTU
HÄMÄLÄINEN
RAINE
KAJASTILA
Known for
Dr. Raine Kajastila studied at the Aalto University of Technology for his engineering degree and continued at the university for post-graduate studies and became interested in human computer interaction. His doctoral dissertation revolved around eyes-free and gestural user interfaces. After he joined Perttu Hämäläinen’s game research group at Aalto University and they began exploring how real-life sports can be combined into digital games. The company Valo Motion was spun out of Aalto University and few months after that a ClimbBall video went viral and gathered over eight million views during the first weekend. After more than 100 million views, the demand for the product exploded, and now Valo Motion is exporting mixed reality sports games to more than 45 countries and counting.