Yes, that’s what happens if you combine Kinect with a recliner on a motorized platform — perfectly normal people doing awesome zombie impersonations! This week at Microsoft’s MIX 11 web developer conference, the enterprising Clint Rutkas of Coding4Fun / Channel 9 fame showed off his Kinect-driven “Jellybean” armchair on stage in the course of the keynote, and later let our personal Sean Hollister take it for a spin. Sadly, we missed our chance to capture this big day on video for posterity when the laptop used to manipulate this armchair overlord ran out of juice within the final stages of our practice run. The motorized platform uses eight batteries, four omnidirectional wheels each with its own motor, and a couple of motor controllers connected to a laptop which interprets the input from Kinect (using the brand new SDK for Windows ) and give visual feedback to the motive force. A gesture interface brings your entire contraption to life or even features a hand signal to recline the armchair. Test some closeup shots in our gallery below and watch our video of the recliner in action after the break.
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