Kinect can help the blind

Two students in the US have worked out how to use a Kinect as a visual aid for blind people.

Kinect is the name of Microsoft’s hands-free controller for the Xbox 360, which uses infrared cameras to build up a 3D picture of a room.

Eric Berdinis and Jeff Kiske at the University of Pennsylvania decided to strip down a Kinect so that it could be worn on a belt. They added three buzzers to the belt so that the wearer can be alerted to objects in front of, or to the side of, them. As the objects get closer, the vibrations get stronger.

Berdinis says that the biggest problem was getting the Kinect to talk to the computer processor they used, as the Kinect wasn’t designed to work with anything other than an Xbox 360.

Watch the video below to see how the adapted Kinect works.

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