Tuesday, March 15, 2011

KINECTS adapted to detect disorder symptoms in children

The motion controller KINECTS is no stranger to the medical procedures were reported in January that slowly unfolding in the operating room for surgical care. But now researchers at the University of Minnesota, Microsoft KINECTS sensors once more as a way to measure disorder symptoms in children.

The team, composed of a number of researchers from the Minnesota Medical Association, Science, Engineering and Education / School of Human Development, received an amount of $ 3,000,000 National Science Foundation grant to use in their research KINECTS. Were seeking to observe and analyze the behavior and movement abnormalities in children. These models could indicate possible behavior problems such as OCD, autism and attention deficit disorders.

Traditionally, these observations made by people via video recordings of patients. But one of the leading researchers in the project believe KINECTS based system could take the subjectivity of the process. This could result in significant savings of thousands of dollars compared to other diagnostic methods and conventional procedures. In some cases, the system KINECTS may eventually reduce costs up to $ 100,000 and also prevent the need to place sensors intrusive for the child.

Open-source PC operating systems and Microsoft KINECTS official SDK which was released earlier this month (spring for a non-commercial use) is to help researchers to adapt technology to their needs. But it will be another six months before their system is ready for testing.