Kinect-based parental controls a possibility?

When one trolls for patents in a patient manner, sooner or later you would come up with a gem – as tech blog Geekwire found out recently, where they managed to discover a US patent for software that relies on Kinect hardware in order to scan a potential player’s body size, and based on that readings, it will form its own conclusions using the pre-programmed algorithms and restrict mature content based on the estimated age of the scanned body size.

Bear in mind that height is not the be all and end all of decision making, where the Kinect sensor will be used to figure out how proportions of body parts fit into the big picture. I would suppose the accuracy of its conclusions can be questionable at times when it comes to determining whether one is able to play a particular game or not, but check out the interesting thing it is capable of below.

The filing says, “output content can be replaced by substitute content when a person in a lower age group enters the field of view.” Does this mean if one were to play a M-rated game, and a minor walks into the room (not on purpose), the console would be able to be aware of that and automatically switch the game over to something less mature such as Kinectimals until said minor leaves the vicinity? An automatic Alt-Tab for the Xbox 360 – interesting, no?

Edwin Kee
Categories: Gadgets, Gaming
Tags: Kinect, Patent