kinect-hacks
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Kinect Hacks: Dodgeball on iOS
Intrigued by Microsoft's demo for Kinect Adventures' Rally Ball minigame and its Windows Phone 7 integration? The minds at Supertouch have created a mock-up of the program, which swaps out the Windows-branded smartphones for iOS devices. Check out a video demonstration of the hack below!
Kinect Hacks: Hole in the (Virtual) Wall
We've seen Kinect hacks both practical and innovative -- but we're not sure we've seen any as fun as FrogNY Build-It's "Human Tetris." Modeled after a Japanese game show that came to the U.S. under the name Hole in the Wall, it looks like it has potential to become our very favorite party game.
Kinect Hacks: A pad-free StepMania
Are you sick of using the Kinect to play games which allow you to actually dance? Modder MMaximus' newest Kinect hack might seem like a step backwards for the genre, but it's a major step forwards for StepMania technology. (And a step to the left! And a step to the right! Now jump!)
Kinect Hacks: The futuristic, unloseable remote
If your loveseat sustains itself on a diet of channel changers, Harishankar Narayanan's Kinect hack is right up your alley: Using the peripheral and a Universal Infrared Receiver Transmitter, any ol' couch potato can turn their body into a remote that's virtually impossible to misplace.
German software devs planning Kinect SDK release for PC
We've highlighted German developer Evoluce before for its impressive Kinect hacks, both to control Windows 7 applications and command soldiers in Ubisoft's RUSE. This time, Evoluce has announced plans to empower more hacks through the release of its software development kit for PC. The "3D-Sensing Custom Software for Kinect" -- which could, admittedly, use a better name -- promises to provide would-be devs with "core features," such as "3D virtual reality experience with full-body avatars" and "touch-free user interfaces." A region-restricted video demonstration of the SDK is available to German viewers on Prosieben.de, but the rest of us are going to have to wait until Evoluce actually releases its kit for a chance to check it out. But who knows -- by that time, Microsoft may have gotten its own, rumored Kinect SDK together. Hurry Evoluce!
Kinect hack: 'FPS' is for 'First-Person Superman'
Utilizing a Vuzix video headset and the Kinect, this project from the University of Amsterdam lets you pretend to be Superman. The experience offers many of Supe's abilities, including ice breath, super strength, heat vision and, best of all, first-person flying. Bonus, you can also zap Darth Vader.
Kinect Hacks: Stomp through the Sprawl in Dead Space 2
This latest Kinect hack demo is something of a mixed bag: Some aspects of playing Dead Space 2 using Kinect and a Wiimote don't work so well. Others work really, really well -- like stomping. If there's a more satisfying-looking gesture in gaming for the rest of the year, we'll eat our hats.
Kinect Hack: Gestural laser light show
Though it's not the most useful superpower in terms of fightin' crime, the ability to shoot beams of light out of your hand would still be a pretty radical ability to possess. That's a dream made real by Phil Reyneri's recent Kinect hack, which has nearly limitless potential for DJs worldwide.
Kinect Hacks: Take to the skies with Avaglide
We've seen YouTube user Demize2010 come up with some clever applications for the Kinect, but his latest might just be his most ambitious project to date: Using the peripheral and the indie game Avaglide, he's managed to grant ordinary humans with the gift of flight. (Kind of.)
Kinect Hacks: Monkeying around with 1:1 movement
Activate 3D's latest Kinect hack doesn't sound all that special on paper -- it lets you interact with a virtual world using 1:1 motion detection -- but the video demonstration of the software is quite special, indeed. Check out Activate 3D's virtual playground shenanigans below.
Kinect Hacks: Doodle Synthesizer
Clearly tired of waiting for Lionhead to put its Milo wizardry to good use, Kinect hacker "roboczar" created an application that turns a plain ol' piece of printer paper into a synthesizer by recognizing shapes drawn on the page as sound buttons. The Kinect sensor scans the object (paper, in this case) and virtualizes it into a musical instrument. What happens next, however, is where things get really magical. Roboczar uses the application -- one he wrote at MIT, applied in tandem with other open-source code -- to play a dedication to our favorite L.A. cop, Axel Foley. Bravo, sir! Head past the break and get your boogie on.
Kinect + Wii Remote + Vuzix Hack: a 'VR' first person shooter
You've seen a number of Kinect hacks. But have you seen one that integrates a Wii Remote Plus and Vuzix headset? And has you shooting weird floating anime heads with paintballs? Probably not. Developer Nao_u certainly deserves props for this ingenious, but impractical, use of motion gaming.
Kinect hacks: Playing Angry Birds
You might have heard of KinEmote, software that allows users to control their PCs using Kinect. Previously, we've seen it used to control Boxee and XMBC, but now the folks at KinEmote.net have found a much better use for it: Angry Birds. The setup uses a wireless controller for button inputs and tracks the player's hand for mouse functions. See it in action after the break.
Wii Remote Plus joins Kinect and Vuzix shades for 2011's weirdest VR shooter yet (video)
The natural evolution to Nao_u's impressive Kinect- and Vuzix-infused already impressive virtual reality simulator? Guns, of course. A Wii Remote Plus has been added to his project, joining Microsoft's sensor and VR920 LCD glasses for a VR shooting game that involves, well, lobbing paintballs out of a P90 rifle towards flying disembodied anime characters. Make no mistake, it's a great technical demo chock full of aesthetic eccentricities. Full details via the developer's diary, video after the break.
Kinect Hacks: Mapping the world
Homebrew Kinect software just passed the "cool" threshold into "a little scary," making Microsoft's camera device do things we shouldn't reasonably expect out of controllers. We couldn't use our Turbo Touch 360s to generate a 3D model of a stretch of road, complete with buildings and scenery, after all. Not that we ever tried. Martin Szarski strapped a Kinect sensor to his car, hooked it up to a laptop and Nexus One phone (for location data) and set about creating a "point cloud" of his car's path. Using a phone with a gyroscope to better sense the car's movement, Szarski said, the cloud would appear clearer. But for a 3D space captured by a $150 game controller, it's pretty impressive, no? Imagine this cheap DIY tech in the hands of indie devs, who could create levels by exploring in real life.
Kinect meets Minecraft, animates a giant statue in your honor (video)
This isn't the first time Kinect and Minecraft have crossed paths -- scavenge the 'nets and you'll find plenty of user interface examples. What Nathan Viniconis has done, however, is different. What you're looking at above is rendered instantly by way of using what the Kinect sees and constructing an in-world monument in real time. Not only that, but the project has now evolved into a sort of stop motion animation. It's pretty impressive, even for those who have little to no idea what Minecraft is. All the nitty gritty details are available on the project page. The video, of course, is after the break.
Kinect hack: Minecraft statues (now with animation!)
Building upon the previous Kinect hack that allows you to scanify yourself into MineCraft, this latest update allows you to scale said model and, even better, now supports animations for up to three seconds. Imagine it: your faithful recreation of BioShock can now have an actual moving, talking head of Andrew Ryan greeting you upon entry into Rapture. Who wouldn't want that? Or you could just tease your cat with a laser pointer like in the video demonstration past the break, we guess.
Kinect combos Street Fighter IV, fires single-fisted boomsticks at the FPS crowd (video)
Oh sure, we've seen the Kinect assist a hadouken or two, but that wasn't the same: here, the YouTube user who brought us Call of Duty via Wiimote, Nunchuk and Kinect is throwing fireballs and taking names in the real game. Demize2010 manipulated the FAAST emulator to recognize a variety of virtual martial arts gestures, including the infamous dragon uppercut and whirlwind kick -- giving him everything he needs for a flowchart victory with only his bare hands. Meanwhile, one Bill Maxwell has taken the Kinect and made it recognize his fist, the better to control first-person shooter games with requiring an Wiimote intermediary. He's developed a "high-speed kinematic tracker" called MaxFPS that monitors his hand's position in real time, allowing him to move, turn, jump, and reload with quick swipes of his paw. How do you shoot? Why, by punching those baddies' lights out, of course. See it on video after the break.
Kinect Hacks: Street Fighter IV gone gestural
Previously, Elliott Woods used Kinect to (sort of) bring the hadouken into the real world. Now, modder "demize2010" has gone the other way, bringing gesture controls into Street Fighter IV. Using Kinect and the FAAST software, he's mapped Ryu and Ken's moves to specific gestures, so that the game character punches when he punches, throws a fireball when he pantomimes throwing a fireball, and so on. Basically, it's what we all thought the Sega Activator would be. If you'd like to try it out yourself -- and you have a copy of Street Fighter IV for PC, of course -- you can find a file with the specific key bindings on the Kinect Hacks site.
Kinect hacks: One-handed FPS control
We've seen Wii remote-assisted Kinect FPS controls before, but how about completely controller-free? Now, thanks to one Bill Maxwell, the Kinect-powered, controller-less FPS is a reality -- and with one hand, no less! The claim that it's "better than a mouse" seems debatable, and we didn't notice any strafing (kind of important in FPS games) but it's still very impressive and handily proves the concept. Check out the video after the break.
