Duration: 30:38

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You have probably played with Kinect. At the very least, IΓÇÖm hoping youΓÇÖve heard of it. The idea is pretty simple: a special camera looks out from the TV, and tells the XBox about your body position, which allows you to control video games in a way thatΓÇÖs very different from a traditional controller, or even than the Wii. What you mightnΓÇÖt realize is that only about 5 years ago, most people thought it was impossible to build such a system with the kind of computing power we have today. Many scientists and engineers around the world were working on ways of solving the problem (we called it ΓÇ£markerless human motion captureΓÇ¥), but it looked far off. In a tiny way, it was a bit like all the people working on heavier-than-air flight at the turn of the 20th centuryΓÇöalthough the Wright brothers get the credit, there were many little steps before they made the first sustained flight. Then, in 2007-2008, several elements came together, and one person at XBox called Alex Kipman suddenly decided it could be done, and gathered a group of people to try to build it. IΓÇÖll talk about the steps leading up to this ΓÇ£impossible projectΓÇ¥, and how we worked to make it possible. I donΓÇÖt know what impossible problems the worldΓÇÖs boffins will solve nextΓÇöinvisibilty cloak? anti-gravity? wireless power?ΓÇöbut I hope some of you will one day be involved in changing our future.