kinect-hacks
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Kinect and iPhone hacked into Sewer Shark-esque shooter prototype
Singapore-based developer Rockmoon has created a promising game prototype using Kinect, an iPhone and the Unity engine. As seen in the video below, one player controls a spaceship while another controls a pair of gatling guns using the iPhone. It's like Lucky and Wild meets Sewer Shark! Kind of.
Kinect and Wii Remote hack makes Tetris much more difficult
Ever wondered how you could go about making Tetris even more of a difficult, punishing experience? Obviously, turning the speed up to infinity isn't enough to stump the world's most proficient players -- but YouTuber user Keysosaurus' Kinect augmented reality Kinect hack might do the trick.
Augmented reality Tetris game uses Kinect hack, Wiimote, smooth jazz (video)
What does it take for a gaming classic to survive in a world ruled by titles like Portal 2 and Homefront? A Kinect hack, a Wiimote, and some electronic elbow grease, apparently. Trinity College student Keysosaurus -- as he's know to his YouTube pals -- has used a bit of C#, XNA, and OpenNI coding to play 3D augmented reality Tetris using Kinect body controls and a Wiimote. The Kinect gestures do most of the work, rotating the board, zooming the camera in and out, and moving the pieces into place, while the Nintendo controller is used to rotate. Video's after the break, but beware, the familiar strains of "Korobeiniki" have been replaced by smooth guitar jazz, so turn the volume up at your own risk.
Kinect-powered TurtleBot now up for pre-order
Initially, you might be excited to hear that Willow Garage is now accepting pre-orders for its Kinect robot, the TurtleBot. For just $1199.99, you get everything necessary to construct and program the TurtleBot, and the idea of programming it to fetch victuals from the kitchen seems awfully keen. That is until you consider the amount of time required for the TurtleBot to achieve sentience. How long could it possibly take? Weeks, days, hours? One minute it's bringing you a delicious, flaky croissant, and the next it's serving up a steaming hot plate of human extinction. As the video after the break explains, this thing is literally designed to track your skeleton and map out your home. Think about it, and don't say we didn't warn you.
Kinect hack: Controlling an AR Drone
Kinect isn't making you feel enough like an omniscient being? Perhaps you'd prefer controlling actual, physical things with your movements, rather than a virtual representation? Boy does Tom Zickel have a Kinect hack for you!
PSA: Kinect hacks segment to air on PBS's 'Need to Know' tonight
Ordinarily, a mainstream news report on how "hackers have repurposed the Kinect to allow people to control computers and the digital world" would have us bracing to put out the fire -- but this is PBS we're talking about. Set your DVR to tape tonight's "Need to Know" and go enjoy your Friday night!
Kinect Hacks: Invade space to control Space Invaders
Space Invaders is a classic arcade title, presenting a simple premise and an almost infinite progression system. But there's just one thing needed to make it perfect. According to coder Derrgis, who created this version for the ElectroShock Festival, it's motion controls with Kinect.
Kinect hack turns tourists into 3D souvenirs (video)
As souvenirs go, a miniature replica of yourself -- striking a pose of your choosing on Barcelona's La Rambla street -- is a far sight more original than a bullfights-and-senoritas snow globe. This past January, the hilariously titled BlablabLAB enlisted three Kinects and a RapMan 3.1 to snap passersby and render them into personalized tchotchkes, in a project called Be Your Own Souvenir. Subjects stood atop a small platform, mimicking the human statues on La Rambla, as the Kinects captured their likeness in full 360-degree glory. The resulting images were then processed as a mesh reconstruction, saved as a G-code file, and then fed through a 3D printer -- and voila, out popped the tiny statuettes. If you're a fan of flashy editing and Kinect-based street experiments, check out the video after the break.
Man steers R/C car with his hands, not to mention an HTML5-based web app (video)
With the right Arduino board, an R/C race car, a couple paperclips and the MacGyver spirit, we imagine most anyone can hack together a creative remote control these days... but how many can open-source an HTML5 web app that'll do the deed from any tablet, phone or PC? Gaurav Manek crafted just such a thing, and he'll demonstrate it for you on an Apple iPad in the video immediately above. What's more, he's also got a Kinect hack that uses Microsoft depth camera (with Code Laboratories' NUI SDK) to control the very same with the wave of a well-placed hand -- we're already envisioning fisticuffs should he and a lab partner try for some head-to-head racing action. That said, you don't need to wait for an illustrious creator to have all the fun. Why not download his source code at our links below and give it a go yourself?
Kinect dives into anime cyberspace, dares you to catch cute robot tanks (video)
If your foremost dream is to jack into a dystopian cyberpunk reality where hackers play with human brains (and you also happen to love Japanese anime), you'd best book your flight to Tokyo right now -- a Shibuya department store has set up a basic cyberspace simulator straight out of Ghost in the Shell. That's the film Ghost in the Shell: S.A.C. Solid State Society, to be precise, which just got a stereoscopic 3D re-release in Japan this week, and in its honor creative services company Kayac set about constructing a high-quality Kinect hack. Microsoft's depth camera tracks the lean of your body, while the honeyed virtual reality is projected onto a pair of nearby walls, and it's your objective to slap the Tachikoma tank silly without falling over yourself. Get a peek at what it's like to play with in the video above.
Kinect Hacks: Become a paint wizard
Though this particular Kinect hack is titled "Living Brushes," we prefer the name "Paint Wizard," for reasons you'll likely only comprehend after watching the video below. We've seen the device used for artistic purposes before, but this program from Matt Lockyer absolutely takes the tempera cake.
Kinect Hacks: Navigating your virtual apartment
Some Kinect Hacks seems to have some practical applications to us tech-savvy folks who don't have access to our own mad scientist laboratories. This ain't one of them: Researchers at the Dundalk Institute of Technology have hooked a Kinect up to a virtual apartment, as seen in the video below.
Kinect Hacks: A dancer in the machine
1n0ut, an artist collective specializing in multimedia performance-based art, has created a Kinect hack both beautiful and inspiring to behold. Titled "Versus," it sees a real-life dancer giving lessons to a digital model. Just imagine: Here's a future where we can teach our computers how to Dougie.
Kinect Hacks: Playable Ghost in the Shell movie ad
A Japanese firm has used Microsoft's Kinect peripheral to create a promotional display for the upcoming Ghost in the Shell: S.A.C. Solid State Society. The exhibit features images projected on two different walls, and then uses the Kinect to track player movements, allowing visitors to control one of the mechs featured in the movie. The system itself is actually PC-based, however, so it's not official Xbox software. If you happen to be in Tokyo and want to see it, the promotional exhibit is on display in the Shibuya Parco shopping complex until the middle of April.
Kinect PS3 hack is a console purist's worst nightmare
They said it couldn't be done, but Shantanu Goel has seemingly done it: married an Xbox 360 and PS3 together through some good, old-fashioned Kinect hackery. In the video past the break, you can see the first small steps for man that is Killzone 3 being played with Kinect. Yes, that is a sentence we never thought we'd have to write. It's still a bit rough around the edges (a self-professed "pre-Alpha" build of the software), but the progress that Goel claims to have made is quite impressive to behold. It could be faked, but all signs point to this being a legitimate, working Kinect hack, using Kinect PC drivers and software that allows the PS3 to use PC controllers. Goel's posted a walkthrough online for all to see.
Kinect Hacks: Hulk Smash!
Go ahead, let the stress out. It's Friday, after all. Time to Hulk out and smash some buildings before the weekend, thanks to this neat Kinect hack. It uses the sensor's RGB camera to tint your skin green and the Box2d physics engine (same as Angry Birds!) to deliver complete and utter pandemonium.
Docs use Kinect to speed up surgery
In the best Kinect application since the device turned a dude into Ultraman, doctors in Toronto are using Microsoft's camera tech to speed up surgery, reports The Canadian Press. Surgeons at Sunnybrook Hospital have been using a special Kinect software suite to manipulate images via hand motions, which saves them from having to leave the sterile area around the patient. (Having to re-sterilize mid-surgery can take as long as 20 minutes, so the Kinect "hack" adds up to pretty significant time savings.) It's a neat development, but we imagine at least one doctor's bound to speak up, "Sure, this is pretty slick, but there's no way I'm gonna move my coffee table out of the OR every time I want to use the Kinect."
Kinect Hack: The sensor goes self-aware
Don't worry, guys -- the video after the jump is from the jokesters at CollegeHumor, so we're pretty sure that it's a fake. Since it's portraying the very terrifying, very possible future of self-aware consumer entertainment devices, we pray to all powers holy that it's a fake.
Kinect Hacks: Ambient music within arms' reach
We've already seen the Kinect's proficiency for aiding in the creation of pulsating dubstep tracks -- today, we learned it's also capable of forming slightly more soothing soundscapes. Check out the video below to see Adriano Clemente go on a noisequest using a clever Kinect and Wiimote hack.
Kinect Hacks: Flying Duck, Punching Robot
Today brought about two distinct, homemade Kinect game concepts -- though both share a proclivity towards the bizarre. The first, MazingerZ, comes from a Japanese modder with the YouTube handle Ken450000, and has the player rocket-punching virtual balloon targets projected in front of them. The other, from Pierre Méar and Rahman Kalfane, is called Duck Leonard, and tasks the player with flapping their wings to navigate a mallard through the rooftops of Brooklyn. That's weird, right? What are you doing there, mallard? Ducks belong in ponds, silly. Check out video demos for the two proofs-of-concepts after the jump!
