DMZ at Korean border. (From http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Korea_DMZ_sentry.jpg)

We’ve talked about the XBox Kinect before, but when I saw this headline about XBox Kinects being used to guard the Korean border (known as the DMZ) I thought it was an early April Fool’s joke.The Kinect is pretty powerful scanning technology, using a combination of camera, sound and IR sensors to detect minute motions of game players.  With its ability to tell differences between game players, one could imagine this could be pretty useful technology to distinguish between say a squirrel and an enemy that a simple motion detector may struggle with.

3D scanning has been used in “fake” war for years now in the making of video games as we talked about related to Augusta National Golf Course and racing games.  We recently saw a great video detailing the 3D scanning process used in the great game Bioshock.  Consumer versions of formally high-end technology are getting cheaper and cheaper and look for the lines to continue to blur between consumer and professional.  Sleep well at night knowing an army of video game hardware may be keeping you safe.