Joe Stanganelli 2/29/2012 12:48:19 PM User Rank Program Manager
Re: Cool application
Wow, talk about "Sit back, relax, and we'll take care of everything for you."
If it only was only equipped with robotic arms (to grab items off the shelves) and NFC (to pay at the checkout line), you could run other errands while the grocery cart does the shopping for you, and pick your groceries up when it's done!
Joe Stanganelli 2/22/2012 4:41:20 PM User Rank Program Manager
Re: Kinect Application Possibilities
There are even more professional and recreational uses yet. Making the assembly line more efficient. Controlling a hovercraft. Home automation and lighting control.
I had the pleasure of trying out the Kinect at a conference, and it was really neat. It's cool to see this technology being adapted for academic, military, and industrial purposes as well.
Rich, you are right about needing light for the color camera to work. I was refering to the distancing IR feature of the Kinect. If the natural sunlight is too bright the IR sensor tends to be "washed out". However, at night the IR sensor works great! Some of the early Sony Camcorders have the IR night vision option which caused quite a stir with some videos taken (aka the "body heat"). Some fabrics also were more transparent in the IR band (much to the surprise of the wearers).
Rich Quinnell 2/21/2012 1:01:25 PM User Rank Blogger
Re: Kinect Application Possibilities: Rich
RD, shape recognition certainly should work, but color? If you are both illuminating and "seeing" in IR, then traditional color is out of the question since it depends on wavelengths in the visible. As I understand the Kinect, it uses IR as rangefinder and has a color camera for images. That would work for color in the daytime but not at night without a white light source.
By the way, most image sensors are also sensitive in the IR and camer makers have to put in special filters to prevent the IR from contaminating the photo. Early camers didnt have them and this let them "see" body heat signatures through clothes.
Curt, I like the idea of using the low cost ultrasonic range finders! I have used a number of them and they can get confused by the reflecting material they encounter (say for example: Diamond Plate - wrecks havoc on the distancing measurement). The thing that was appealing to me with the Kinect is the IR sensor seems to be a little more robust than the ultrasonic rangers and has fairly decent resolution. Given the cost of the full up Kinect, I would hope that some enterprising company would purchase the sub-components - IR driver/sensor (if they can be bought) and create a low cost, high resolution seeing eye Kinect with voice feedback for reading signs. Simple color and shape recognition might be possible (maybe not fast enough to be real time but quick enough) using some of the high performance / low cost processors on the market. The neat thing is it would work in the dark better than in the light!
Rich Quinnell 2/17/2012 12:39:32 PM User Rank Blogger
Re: Cool application
Northstar, that is cool. It would be an interesting way of teaching map-reading in grade school, among other things.
All this with the Kinect harkens back to the theme of my blog Toys vs. Tools - the more versatile something is, the more powerful. Yet another "toy" becoming a tool.
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