[From Wired’s GeekDad blog]

Real-Life Holodecks? Microsoft Kinect Augmented Reality Room Is the Closest Thing Yet

By Chuck Lawton
November 5, 2011

I first saw technology like this at the Microsoft Imagine Cup where student teams hacked the XBox 360 accessory Kinect to do some pretty amazing things. Microsoft’s previously released SDK was showcased at the event with workshops for students to learn how to leverage the platform and every competitor received a free Kinect to further the platform.

And while what’s showcased in this [6:00 minute] video is far from a group of students hacking away at a consumer device, Microsoft Research is continuing to push the Kinect platform well past its designed purpose of a controller-free video game accessory. Here they’ve created an augmented reality room by coupling the Kinect sensors with wall projectors and a hand held pico projector and sensors that allow you to shine a virtual flashlight to peer inside the virtual reality room around you.

Pretty incredible. And the closest thing I’ve seen to a holodeck yet.

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Chuck is a proud geek and a dad. By day he works in Information Technology in Higher Ed. By night he is a producer and musician playing bass in the Milwaukee band, “The Vitrolum Republic.”
Follow @nerdfoo and @wiredgeekdad on Twitter.

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