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The State Department Puts Kinect To Work

The State Department Puts Kinect To Work

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The state of our economy being the way it is, most people have had to tighten their belts in some way. And, while governmental agencies are constantly getting flack for their excessive spending, the State Department has found a clever way to shave a few bucks out of their annual budget.

The State’s Office of eDiplomacy has found a way to combine Microsoft’s Kinect with a presentation software called Prezi (it’s like PowerPoint, only cooler). The new hardware integration allows a presenter to navigate through their presentation without having to use a remote to advance to the next slide. This frees up the speaker’s hands and actually gives them more control of the overall presentation.



The technology that the State Department is currently using to accomplish this costs about $6,000. So, the $200 Kinect is a welcome alternative. Though, I can’t help but wonder what a cost-benefit analysis would say about a $200 Kinect vs. a $20 remote, considering that they both essentially do the same thing.

By Josh Engen

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