The medical sector is now exploring the possibility of using the Kinect to perform gesture-based surgery. A video release by Youtube user, npadoy shows the potential of having “Kinect surgery” by connecting the Kinect to a da Vinci robot and then using gestures to perform a simple yet important procedure: needle insertion and stitching. The procedure was performed in the Laboratory for Computational Sensing and Robotics (LCSR), at the Johns Hopkins University.
Using the Kinect for medical procedures might give us a glimpse of the future technological advances of intense medicare. Especially for cases which depend of precision and timing, further development of the Kinect and gesture-based surgery might just help increase the chances of success. The code is currently private but as soon as it is made live, expect to see it here at Kinecthacks.com