Kinsight uses Kinect sensor to find lost keys and wallets

Two computer science researchers have developed a depth-camera based system that keeps track of household objects as they are moved around a building.

The project - dubbed Kinsight - relies on several of Microsoft's Kinect sensors attached to a computer running the team's software.

Although the project is still at an experimental stage, it has been shown to work in a "real-world scenario".

Details of the system  were recently outlined at a conference in China and were subsequently reported by New Scientist .

"Imagine if we had a system that could keep account of all the objects that we interact with in our daily lives," the researchers said.

"By keeping track of the locations of the objects, we could build a smart search engine for our home that could answer queries like - where are my eye glasses, or my TV-remote, or my wallet?"

Although alternative solutions, such as the use of radio-frequency identification chips already exists, the men said their system was many times cheaper due to the high cost of RFID readers.

Read more