The Kinect has only been out for a few months and it has been used for a bunch of different purposes and even broke a Guinness World Record for sales. Now, Kinect can add another milestone to its resume: medical research.
Researchers at the University of Minnesota have found a way to use the Kinect in place of a $100,000 system to monitor children being diagnosed with OCD and ADD. Professor Nikolaos Papanikolopoulos said that, “As a doctor, you don’t have tangible data. We try to provide the tools in order to back up claims of a mental disorder.” The data he is referring to is now gained from a tweaked version of Kinect.
The Kinect has proven itself to be an amazing device, especially at its price point. “Something we can do three years down the line, we can do it today because of technology that was destined for the gaming industry. I don’t think Microsoft has realized that [Kinect] is something that could change medicine,” said Papanikolopoulos.
The research recently won a $3 million grant from the NSF to use Kinect in observing and analyzing abnormal movements and behaviors in children.
[via 1up]