Video: Kinect-Hacked Shopping Cart Automatically Follows Wheelchair-Bound Shoppers Around

Here at PopSci, we love Kinect hacks, be they applicable for future technology or just for fun. This new hack might just be the one most likely to improve someone’s day-to-day life, though. Luis de Matos has rigged hackers’ favorite device to make a shopping cart follow a wheelchair user around the store.

The wi-Go project, as it’s called, could significantly improve autonomy for disabled shoppers. The video below shows the difficulty of trying to simultaneously operate a cart and a wheelchair and then (beginning around 1:20) a much less stressful shopping trip, courtesy of the wi-Go.

wi-GO Project from Luis de Matos on Vimeo.

[Kinect Hacks via Engadget]