North Korea has entered the video game age, with official photos showing Nintendo's Wii being utilized in a hospital for rehabilitation purposes. At the same time, South Korea has adopted the more advanced Kinect motion tracking sensor to track those intent on crossing the dangerous DMZ (demilitarized zone).
The newly opened Munsu Recovery Center in Pyongyang, located in the capital city of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, is now home to at least one Wii game console according to photos published by the country's official news source to promote the new hospital. The Wii console comes with at least one Wii MotionPlus controller, a copy of the game Wii Sports Resort, and even a Wii Balance Board, all based on carefully studying the officially supplied photo. The photo shows a woman, most likely a patient at the hospital, playing Wii Sports Resort's table tennis game.
Meanwhile, South Korea has adopted a motion gaming technology for a slightly different use - to track those that dare to cross the heavily mined DMZ. In recent times, the DMZ has become a wildlife sanctuary of sorts, due to the lack of a human presence inside the zone. And a Kinect based system is now used to quickly, and cheaply, differentiate between animals from humans that are detected by the multitude of infrared sensors that covers the zone.
While the current system is still based on previous-gen Kinect technology, the South Korean military is already investigating an upgrade to the Xbox One's Kinect 2.0, which would allow for better accuracy and even heartbeat detection.
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