The pace of technology has become so amazing that a lot of concepts, which seemed fictional just a while ago, are fast becoming real. Remember the robot you could ride and control in Avatar? Many of us had fantasized to have a similar robot of our own. And now, it would seem that the fantasy is about to become real.
Microsoft has been trying to make Xbox 360 expand its influence from gaming alone to home theatre and lot more. Now, the company has some more features up its sleeves which it is planning on launching on its gaming console. For instance, according to reports, Microsoft is currently checking if a modified version of Internet Explorer 9 runs well enough on Xbox 360 or not.
![[Video] Japan Developing Tongue Controlled Kinect Interface](https://thetechjournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/Kinect-is-The-Tongue-Detector-150x119.png)
Japan is not only a country of Earthquakes but also it is country of developing different technologies. A research group at The University of Electro-Communications is developing an interface to detect tongue movement using the Kinect. This interface is intended mainly for training the oral muscles including the tongue only. It is especially made for those people who have oral motor function disorders affecting their ability to speak or swallow.
Microsoft has finally announced the eleven lucky fellows who made it to the finalists’ list for Kinect Accelerator. The finalists in this Kinect hacking showdown will be involved in an intensive program over the upcoming months. These finalists hail from a number of countries which include Canada, France, Germany and United States.
After three years of negotiations and discussions between BBC and Microsoft, the BBC iPlayer app has finally launched on Xbox 360. The initial discussions started back in 2009 but had seen slow progress due to Microsoft’s insistence on keeping all revenue from the content. Now, however, the shockingly pleasant news is that Microsoft won’t be charging anything for the content of the app and users with Xbox Live account will be able to use it for free.
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.
Microsoft used a transparent OLED (Organic Light Emitting Diode) in their research in June 2010. They became successful in their research. Microsoft used a camera beneath a transparent OLED to create gesture-based interaction. Recently, Microsoft research has unveiled a new research project. By using a Samsung-made transparent OLED and a Kinect camera, a 3D interactive desktop becomes enabled. This is simply a different creative project.
Microsoft’s Kinect has jolted the company into the realm of motion-sensor hardware products. Initially, Microsoft developed it only as an auxiliary to Xbox 360 but given the immense popularity of Kinect and the fact that many hailed it as an excellent motion-sensor device, Microsoft has apparently decided to launch it with it’s other mainstream products. We have already heard of Kinect working with Windows. Now we have Kinect for Windows Media Center, an app which is available for $6.99.