Seoul (AFP) - Microsoft's movement-recognition Kinect software has morphed from virtual shooter gaming to the real-life challenge of guarding the world's last Cold War border.
The sensor allowing hands-free play on the Xbox is the basis for a security device now deployed along the demilitarised zone (DMZ) that separates North and South Korea, after being adapted by a South Korean programmer.
Four kilometres (2.5 miles) wide and 248 kilometres (155 miles) long, the DMZ is a depopulated no-man's land of heavily fortified fences that bristles with the landmines and listening posts of two nations that technically remain at war.
As a military buffer zone, it remains an area of profound Cold War hostility, but its man-made isolation has also created an accidental wildlife park recognised as one of the best-preserved habitats on Earth.
The Kinect-based software developed by Ko Jae-Kwan, founder-president of Saewan Co., has been taken up by the military because of its ability to differentiate between human and animal movement.
Ko, 39, told AFP on Thursday that his device could detect the sound, movement and direction of anybody attempting to cross the DMZ and immediately alert South Korean border guards.
"Existing sensors, which had been in place along the border, were highly efficient but could not tell the difference between humans and animals, sending wrong signals frequently," Ko said.
The new sensors have been in place along certain sections of the DMZ since August last year, he added.
