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We haven’t really devoted too much article time to some of the unique new ways the Kinect is being used, so we thought we’d present an edition of Cool Uses to show a couple of unique safety devices that will surely enrich our protection if they ever hit the market.
Let’s face it. Parking a car is often difficult, especially at night. You may not be able to see the Lexus parked right in back of your car until your bumper is scraping against the side of the metal, but a Kinect can. It can see in regular video, infrared and bird’s eye modes, making it the perfect observer for those blind spots. And Gibson Wu, a researcher at the University of Technology in Australia, is hoping that his system may wind up a part of any car’s safety system.
The idea is actually not that complicated. He mounted a Kinect to the back bumper of the car and fed the signal into the dashboard screen. From there, he was able to get a full view of what was behind him in all three modes. This allows any driver to view what is there (even in pitch black) to avoid any possible collision. Now I know what you’re thinking. What cars have video screens built in to the dash? Well they are more prevalent these days, but many older cars don’t. But Wu is working on a solution to that too. He is experimenting with being able to transfer that video feed into an Android phone app. That would let those that have that particular phone use their headset screen to see behind them. With docking stations often built to attach to the dash, this would be a pretty good solution. Hopefully after the Android, he’d get it for Windows and for iPhone as well. And this method to add “reverse” screens to cars would be infinitely cheaper than custom jobs or the add-on cost for new cars in the long run.
The hack currently works on Ubuntu, OpenCV and Libsfreenect.
Of course, one of the things that Microsoft has been headed toward with the Kinect is business applications. A bank in Lithuania is testing a system based on the Kinect that can recognize facial features and voice and provide added authentication for an ATM machine. One of the biggest concerns is that after you put in your card and pin number, someone hijacks you and then takes the money that you were getting out. But with the Kinect, the chance of this happening is greatly reduced. Because the sensor can see that, just as a human can and close out the transaction before any damage is done. It can also tell if you just walk away, for instance, without your card or without the receipt or the cash. Trust me, it happens.
The developer, Etronika, is well aware that people are not comfortable with pure automation when it comes to bank transactions and the customers are right to be skeptical. Even if you know the bank teller, she still usually wants ID and a fingerprint in some cases (at least in US transactions) before handing over the cash. The Kinect ATM is the same thing. Just like a regular ATM, it will still require the pin number to be entered before dolling out the dough. This will keep people from making a mask of someone’s face and trying to trick the system into giving up the money. On the other side of the coin, however, the added security will also keep people from perhaps hacking someone’s card.
The machine also lets the Kinect do what it does best. Instead of just using the buttons on the ATM like you normally do, it will accept hand gestures and voice commands to make the transaction smoother and more natural.
What do you think? Is this the way of the future?
Well that’s all the time we have for this edition of Cool Uses. Thanks for reading.
