The Microsoft Kinect can be used for many things, such as medical purposes, educational purposes, and gaming purposes. However recently music conductor Ludovic Morlot found out that the Kinect can also be used to conduct music and as it turns out, it was a perfect fit in his orchestra.
As conductors rely on gestures to command direct the orchestra or parts of it, it seemed like a natural fit to include a Kinect into the mix. Through the use of gestures, Morlot was able to command the Kinect to play additional instruments alongside his orchestra. This allowed him to include instruments such as a 24-reedhorn sculpture, a set of concert chimes, and a robotic grand piano.
This resulted in a performance at the grand lobby of the Benaroya Hall, home to the Seattle Symphony. The Kinect was placed in front of the conductor’s stand which allowed Morlot to interact with it while ensuring that his musicians could also clearly see his commands. Unfortunately this performance was a one-time thing but it does highlight some of the non-gaming uses of the device.
That being said with Microsoft recently unbundling the Kinect from the Xbox One console, many were worried about its future. The Redmond company has since come forward to assure users that development of the Kinect has not been abandoned. In the meantime to see how this worked out, check out the video above.