Microsoft's Kinect used for Video Conferencing is pretty cool

Nowadays, we can communicate with each other by lots of software and devices being featured. But are we really satisfied already with those existing gadgets? I think those gadgets haven't prove yet their values because of continuous innovations that we have now.

Microsoft Kinect used for Video Conference

Today, MIT Media Lab researchers have used the Microsoft Kinect powers of depth and human perception to create video conferencing. There are four features implemented for this Video Conference: Talking to Focus, Freezing Former Frames, Privacy Zone and the Special Augmenting Reality.

Talking to Focus
From the first image above which is the upper left corner, the person who is not the center of conversation is temporarily blurred. While the one who is speaking have the relevant information displayed on the screen like the time she is talking, her name, etc.

Freezing Former Frames
Here you can freeze the gesture of the person who is not the center of the conversation letting the other person move as normal. This technique is being used for some short task like checking emails, text messages and other task relevant to the conversation.

Privacy Zone
Here the background is being eliminated from Kinect when there is a disturbing movement around during video conference.

Special Augmenting Reality
This is using the 3D position of the objects which can be assigned in an augmented status. People can click the objects on the screen (on the other space) to see the augmented information remotely.

Take a look on the video below for details of these four features: