Kinect may guess your age, determine suitable TV programming

With the ridiculous number of amazing Kinect hacks already out there, it seems like there's nothing the little black bar can't do — and in the near future we may be able to add clairvoyance to its list of abilities. Microsoft has revealed a new age verification system that would use a 3D camera to estimate the age of a person watching TV and then set the parental controls accordingly.

The concept — which was revealed in a patent filing that is now public — measures things like shoulder and head width, and arm length to ballpark the age group of the person surfing the channels. If the individual is determined to be too young to view certain programming, those channels would be blocked out. When the user attempts to change the channel again, a new scan is done to determine the new age settings.

The filing doesn't explicitly mention Kinect as the 3D hardware in question, but there are several signs that point firmly in that direction. The rumors of an Xbox 360 television service have been heating up in recent weeks, and the filing for the new system lists Xbox developers as its inventors, so the chances of this new tech not ending up on Xbox 360 appear slim.

(Source)

This article originally appeared on Tecca

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