Microsoft's motion-sensing controller Kinect, for its Xbox 360 game system, has already been embraced by gamers -- selling 10 million units worldwide, according to the sales numbers released last week -- and even artists, who "hacked" the device shortly after its November launch to create 3-D artworks.
Now, doctors in Canada have found a use for it in the operating room: the hands-free manipulation of images during surgery.
Surgeons at Sunnybrook Hospital in Toronto say the $150 gadget can help doctors pull up CT or MRI scans for review during an operation without having to leave the "sterile field" surrounding the operating table, according to a report from The Canadian Press.
The Kinect can recognize hand gestures, as it is essentially a depth-sensing camera that fires out a grid of near infra-red beams to figure out how far away objects are from the camera. Built-in software contains algorithms that help it detect and recognize movement.
And using hand gestures to zoom in or out of or flip through images could cut out the time surgeons normally spend scrubbing clean after reviewing images, the doctors said.
Dr. Calvin Law, a surgical oncologist with the hospital, told the paper that cleaning to prevent bacterial contamination after checking a computer can take up to 20 minutes an image, sometimes adding a full hour to surgery.
The project was developed by three engineers at the hospital, who have used the Kinect for six surgeries, The Canadian Press said, but the hospital has plans to roll it out in other departments.
Sunnybrook isn't alone in applying the Kinect to health care. Students at University of Washington have experimented with using it for robotic surgeries -- using 3-D maps of patients' bodies to block off "no go" areas for the robot. And the Virtopsy research program in Bern, Switzerland are looking at using it for touch-free control of a PACS system during virtual autopsies.
