Last year researchers from Cornell took a Microsoft Xbox and tweaked its Kinect motion sensing device to analyze what exactly people are doing – be it brushing their teeth, cooking or writing. The device is based around a webcam-like peripheral that uses a RGBD (Red, Green, Blue, Depth) camera. Treating each person’s activity as composed of a set of sub-activities; researchers Jaeyong Sung, Colin Ponce, Bart Selman, Ashutosh Saxena were able to associate certain activities with certain algorithms. The idea is to reverse engineer Kinect so that it can be put to use orchestrating life in a smart home, or by being the eyes for a future personal assistive robot. Critics, however, have been divided on the work, claiming it could be too intrusive.
Your Xbox is Watching You
Last year researchers from Cornell took a Microsoft Xbox and tweaked its Kinect motion sensing device to analyze what exactly people are doing – be it brushing their teeth, cooking or writing. The device is based around a webcam-like peripheral that uses a RGBD (Red, Green, Blue, Depth) camera.
