Kinect Hacked to Control Surgical Robots
It can’t be denied that Kinect has made a big impact in the Video Game Industry. Hackers have changed it from simply a controller to much more. Most recently a way to control Surgical Robots.
Yes, you’ve heard right. Grad students at the University of Washington have hacked and modified Kinect firmware and software to help control surgical robots.
While it has not been perfected, engineers and researchers are confident that Kinect will help add “force feedback” in controlling surgical robots during procedures. Howard Chizeck, professor of electrical engineering, claims the hacked Kinect adds the sense of touch and feeds information to the surgeon. It’s estimated that when perfected the Kinect enabled setup could save $50,000.
On how this would work, Chizneck states:
“We could define basically a force field around, say, a liver, if the surgeon got too close, he would run into that force field and it would protect the object he didn’t want to cut. Originally the group planned CT scans to provide the data, but soon the group got the idea of using a depth camera to provide a more precise picture by measuring infrared light reflected off of the surface. Last month, the group decided to use Microsoft’s Kinect, “for obvious reasons.”
Completely fascinating stuff. While not an official use blessed by Microsoft yet, I’m sure this a part of the revolution Microsoft envisioned as part of the future.
