Kinect-enabled Robot to Rescue Earthquake Victims?

Did you ever think a video game system would be saving lives? Now, a Kinect-powered robot is making it possible.

The Warwick Mobile Robotics team at the University of Warwick it taking Kinect-hacking to a new level. We already knew that the Microsoft software could be hacked to perform surveillance. But, as WMB students discovered, that's only the beginning. 

The U.K. students created a full-on rescue robot, complete with all-terrain "feet." The bot is able to gauge distance by interpreting the software's special color-coding, which enables it to understand its surroundings and find earthquake victims. 

Clearly, a rescue robot is a safe alternative to manually searching through earthquake rubble. And with the Kinect interface, this bot is much more cost-effective than traditional search-and-rescue robots, which usually use lasers to gain situational awareness. 

Luckily for the Warwick students, Microsoft encourages the hacking. In fact, it plans to release a non-commercial Kinect for Windows SDK sometime this spring.