Clever math could enable a high-quality 3-D camera for cellphones
Friday, January 6, 2012 - 07:31
in Mathematics & Economics
When Microsofts Kinect -- a device that lets Xbox users control games with physical gestures -- hit the market, computer scientists immediately began hacking it. A black plastic bar about 11 inches wide with an infrared rangefinder and a camera built in, the Kinect produces a visual map of the scene before it, with information about the distance to individual objects. At MIT alone, researchers have used the Kinect to create a Minority Report-style computer interface, a navigation system for miniature robotic helicopters and a holographic-video transmitter, among other things.