Microsoft’s Kinect device was designed for its video game consoles, but the company has pushed for a wider range of applications, including in hospitals.
Last year Microsoft partnered with 11 startups in a “Kinect Accelerator” program to develop new apps and software for the device, CNNMoney says. One of the partners, Ubi Interactive, has come up with something really cool, and not as expensive as you might think.
Its software endows computer images projected on a desk or a wall with touchscreen capabilities, controlled in the same way as a tablet or smartphone, CNNMoney says. Ubi says all that’s needed is “a projector or display panel, a Kinect for Windows sensor and a Windows 8 PC with Ubi software installed.”
Touchscreens are everywhere now, but making ones this big would be expensive. A $150 version of the software creates touchscreens up to 45 inches wide, and a version that costs $379 can support screens of up to 100 inches.
That’s on top of the cost of the Microsoft Kinect sensor, which has a retail cost of $250. You can see a one-minute video of the software in action below.
In another video on CNNMoney, you can also see that the sensor picks up on when you move the screen to a larger or smaller surface, and automatically makes it bigger or smaller. It looks just as responsive as my smartphone, and CNET says it should be just as smart.
“Because of the 3-D mapping of Kinect, the system is able to tell when users have made a full click, rather than just hovering their fingers above the screen; this allows users to flick through pages or scroll around, without selecting items with each movement,” it says.
This could be used in classrooms, business settings, and probably just to have a lot of fun. What do you think of it? Tell us on Facebook.
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