With the ability of the Microsoft Kinect device to detect body movement, we have seen it used in a variety of applications that are not related to gaming whatsoever, and now it looks like the Kinect technology has also been used in sign-language research. In a collaboration with Microsoft Research Asia and the Institute of Computing Technology at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, researchers have been testing the Kinect to see how the device’s body-tracking features can be used in sign-language recognition.
The reason behind this is to see if by using the Kinect, those who rely on sign-language as their primary means of communication might better interact with computers. This is to help overcome challenges sign-language users might encounter in situations where the other person does not understand sign-language, or if there is no interpreter available. According to their findings, it seems that this experiment worked out pretty well, although as it stands it is more of a research project rather than an actual tool that is being developed for real-world situations. In any case if you want to see it in action, check it out in the video above.