Some French hackers have put together a program that uses the Kinect to detect certain hand gestures (which is, after all, what it was designed to do) and translate them into words. Right now it only recognizes “hello” and “sorry,” but the team is only just now teaching it words — the “build” period is over, and now it’s time to learn.
The video’s in French, but there are English annotations (leave ’em on) and it’s easy enough to get the gist if you understand that “bonjour” is “hello” and “désolé” is “sorry.”
The skeleton they’re using, though, doesn’t seem to recognize hand and finger positions, which can of course affect the sign you’re making. But once again we have this gaming peripheral being applied to the advancement of humankind, as opposed to the frittering away of time. Keep up the good work, guys.
[via Kinect Hacks]