Seeing Robotics with New Eyes

Technology Review
July / August 2011

Since Microsoft launched its Kinect motion-detecting system for video games, hackers have been eagerly repurposing the $150 device. Garratt Gallagher, a robotics engineer at the MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, used it to build a robot called the Bilibot that he is selling online for $1,200. The device, which is small enough for Gallagher to carry in his arms, can perceive its surroundings, move around, and manipulate objects. The Kinect is a key element, Gallagher says, because it can detect its environment just as well as a sensor that costs $5,000.
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