The brainy brains at SCI-Arc and Caltech have designed an entirely solar-powered house that is clean, green, and energy-efficient. It’s also remarkably easy to use, thanks to the fact that the entire thing is powered by Xbox’s Kinect motion controls.
Fastcodesign breaks it down:
The Compact, Hyper-Insulated Prototype Solar House (CHIP) has an Xbox Kinect for a master command centre that lets residents tweak lights and shades using basic gestural movements, like pointing and sweeping their arms. Too forgetful (or just plain lazy) for that? The house has a 3-D camera that can track your movements and automatically switch off the lights behind you.
Here’s what it looks like:
Given how hard a time I sometimes have getting my Kinect to work with my gestures, I would imagine that it would be easier to control your house using voice-activation than physical movement. Rather than “Xbox: Pause!” I’m imagining saying “House: Turn off the lights!” Yeah, that’d work.
You can read all the project at their official website below, and I recommend it — it sounds like a damn cool house, though I’m not sure I’d want to live there just yet.
Compact Hyper-Insulated Prototype 2011 [Sci-Arc/Caltech via Fastcodeslgn.com]
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