Kinect-based movie making patent application filed

A number of third parties have come up with many different ways to use Microsoft's Kinect motion gesture hardware and software for non-gaming applications. That includes its use in surgery and even making a virtual sandbox.

Now it's been discovered that Microsoft has filed a patent application with the US Patent and Trademark Office that shows a proposal of how to use a system like Kinect as the basis for a movie creation tool. The application states:

Movies can be directed, captured, and edited using a system that includes a depth camera. A virtual movie set can be created by using ordinary objects in the living room as virtual props. The system is able to capture motions of actors using the depth camera and to generate a movie based thereon.

The application adds that such a movie creation system could, for example, use an ordinary living room as the basis for a virtual set that takes place on a beach or even a space ship. A person might hold an object in the room that serves as a virtual camera. Microsoft said this device does not actually need to capture any video footage, but instead would be used to show how the scene looks in the virtual world.

In other words, this system could really generate something akin to a holodeck, which can then be captured and edited into a movie. There's no word yet if Microsoft is actually creating a real world product that matches its patent proposal.

Via: Engadget
Source: US Patent and Trademark Office | Image via Microsoft

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