It's raining sight capable robots ever since Microsoft's Kinect motion controller went open source. Willow Garage, a team of researchers and robotics experts, has paired Xbox 360's Kinect with a robot that is capable of gesture control. The team behind the robot is well known for developing their own open source Robot Operating System (ROS), which has gained popularity among robotics experts.

Its line of PR2 robots have also been used for robotics research. The team has successfully mated Kinect with their PR2 robotics system and ROS for a gesture controlled robot interface. The video released by Willow Garage looks impressive, and holds great promise in engineering, defence and other civilian applications. With enough improvement, such a system may provide enough precision to perform remote medical procedures, explosive detonation and mine sweeping, and other implementations where robotic interfaces could be successfully paired with precise human control.