When Microsoft unveiled the Kinect in Novemeber 2010, the world’s first completely controllerless gaming peripheral, there was much derision from hardcore gamers, some of which still continues. Many complain that, as of yet, the games released exclusively for the Kinect just don’t hold up. There was also the controversy surrounding the Kinect’s inability to recognize those with darker skin pigments, a claim which has since been debunked. But the numbers don’t lie. Currently, Kinect holds the Guinness World Record of being the “fastest selling consumer electronics device”, selling 8 million units in its first 60 days. With all the hate for this system, how could this be?
To understand the success of the Kinect, one needs to look past the realm of pick up and play video games and into the hardware’s potential for scientific advancement. Many ambitious and tech savy individuals have found ways to “hack”, “jailbreak”, or “root” the product, which allows for creative interpretation of what the device can, and should, be able to do. While some of these are simple, yet very cool, modifications, such as the Evil Genius Tesla Coil Controller:
We also see the device start to get used in a ways that make people question the ultimate potential it, like the Kinect Shadow Puppets Hack.
There have been multiple examples of such reality augmentation, with this “predator” like camoflague easily being one of my favourites.
More practical advancement also exist, such as the ability to control windows 7 with your hands, a la Minority Report.
Then there are those that bring it all home.
The Toronto Star reported how doctors at Sunnybrook Hospital, located in Toronto, have found a potentially life saving application for the Kinect, by allowing them to interact with brain and body images, along with being able to access any other necessary computer-related information, without ever having to touch a keyboard or mouse.
“You’re always concerned to a degree that every time you move away from the operating table, every time you have to go to another area, you always put your sterility at risk a little bit,” Said Dr. Calvin Law, a surgical oncologist. “There’s nothing like minimizing the risk to absolutely as low as possible.”
It is believed that, through the usage of the Kinect, the elimination of having to continuously sanitize every time doctors leave the table to scroll through the information will shed as many as two hours off some operations.
Matt Strickland, a general surgery resident at University of Toronto and engineer, adapted the Kinect for the procedure with Jamie Tremaine, a mechatronics engineer and Greg Brigley, a computer engineer.
So now, if someone complains that you’re spending too much time playing video games, you can keep your eyes situated on the screen, and scream, “FOR SCIENCE!”
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