Microsoft Kinect sensor is considered one of the best and most affordable motion-sensing equipment right now. It is being used not only by gamers but also by researchers in the field of robotics. At Microsoft’s annual TechFest research fair, Microsoft researchers as well as third-party researchers are showcasing their Kinect-based projects.
The projects that are being showcased by all these Kinect-enthusiasts are truly marvellous and seem to show what potential and promise Microsoft’s motion sensor has and how far and wide it can be used.
For instance, one of the projects that was shown off at the TechFest was Holoflector projection or augmented reality mirror. The project was already launched during the pre-TechFest media event which was scheduled a week ago.
Some other really cool projects of which Microsoft lent only a glimpse of, include:
Beamatron: This project makes use of a projector and a Kinect camera on a moving head. The moving head is used to place the image at a desired place in, say, a room while the camera is used to correctly warp the image for the projection surface. So how could this be of any use in the practical world? ‘A projected virtual car can be driven on the floor of the room but will bump into obstacles or run over ramps’ wrote one of the analysts.
SpatialEase: This seems like a very intelligent project which deals with learning the language of space.It’s actually a Xbox 360 Kinect game which uses ’embodied’ learning and connects language with thought and action. According to the description of the project, “The learner must quickly interpret second-language commands, such as the translation of ‘move your left hand right,’ and move his or her body accordingly.”
Kinect in the dark: How awesome it is to be able to perceive something a few feet from you in sheer dark? Some researchers have argued that with Kinect, thiss can be possible, “Kinect technology can open up new interactions in the dark, for example helping us to ‘feel’ an invisible shape through sound feedback.”
Shake n Sense: When two or more Kinect cameras read the same scene, this can cause interference in the resulting captured shoot. This project aims to mitigate this interference without use of any specialized software.
Apart from these and many other excellent Kinect-based projects, Microsoft’s TechFest also featured some non-Kinect projects, some of them making use of new search techniques.
[ttjad keyword=”xbox-360″]
