kinect-hacks
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Kinect Hacks: Lend a hand with Black and White
Another day, another Kinect hack from Jack Schofield -- however, this one might be his very best idea yet. He's found a way to tap into the Kinect's natural proclivity for hand navigation using a game which prides itself on exclusively using hand navigation: Black and White. Check it out below!
Kinect Hacks: Projection mapping combined with depth sensing (or: Hadouken!)
In layman's terms, this Kinect hack lets you throw a Hadouken with the assistance of a projector. Do you really need to know any more than that?
Kinect + projector = augmented reality fireballs (video)
We've seen fancy augmented reality projection before, but we've rarely been able to take it home -- now, it seems Microsoft's hack-friendly Kinect can bring the same trick to the consumer realm. Elliot Woods took the idea that Kinect can map a three-dimensional space and twisted it to his own devious ends -- that is, throwing traditional Street Fighter fireball blasts, complete with the sound effect. What's impressive here, though, isn't the size of his hadouken, but rather the light it's made of -- each is a virtual dynamic light source casting light on the room's real objects to create virtual shadows on the surfaces that stick out. Sounds lovely, but if you can't wrap your head around all that, you'll find all the hot fireball action you need in the video after the break at roughly the five minute mark.
Kinect Hacks: Quick-time gestures with Indigo Prophecy
Kinect modder extraordinaire Jack Schofield's latest gesture-based infusion of a gaming classic is so obvious, we're a little upset we didn't think of it first: David Cage's original QTE-filled piece of interactive drama, Indigo Prophecy. Check out a lengthy video demonstration below.
The audience is listening to this Kinect hack
Ostensibly, Gerry Chu's Kinect hack, "Motion Emotions," was created to "express emotions using movement as a proxy." Specifically, raising one's arms plays a "powerful, motivational sound." In reality, it lets you play the THX "Deep Note" and look flippin' sweet while doing it.
Kinect Hacks: Flash, HTML, Unity and Silverlight integration
Blitz, an interactive marketing agency, has released its source code and scripts for a Kinect mod that outputs data compatible with Flash, HTML, Unity and Microsoft Silverlight. The company, which helped launch Halo: Waypoint with Microsoft and 343 Industries, explains that the device's standard C++ programming language was too limited for budding Kinect hackers. Hit the jump for the tutorial video.
Kinect Hacks: Dive into Max Payne
Jack Schofield is quickly becoming our very favorite Kinect modder, largely because he keeps adding more games to his catalog of backwards-engineered, motion-supported classics. Check out his video to see how a Kinect and Wiimote can be used to make Max Payne even radder.
Kinect Hacks: Build a monument to yourself in Minecraft
Behold, a singularity of internet phenomena! Nathan Viniconis has modded Kinect to capture images that are imported into Minecraft, creating gigantic monuments out of household objects. "Household objects?" Who are we kidding -- you're going to turn yourself into Mount Rushmore.
Kinect Hacks: Gesture-based Modern Warfare, Zelda and Doom
YouTube user Demize2010 has been busy since the Kinect's release -- though some have managed to squeeze motion controls into one older title, this crafty modder has Kinectified three. Check out the videos after the jump to see his take on Modern Warfare, Doom and Zelda: A Link to the Past.
Kinect Hacks: Because Aphex Twin isn't scary enough
Either you know who Aphex Twin is -- and you know damned well to hide his album covers when you try to sleep -- or you're utterly clueless. Basically, the life's work of Aphex Twin (A.K.A. Richard D. James) is to create musical nightmare fuel. It is a calling at which he excels. And now, thanks to the Kinect hacking of one Robert Hodgin -- the same guy who did this -- Aphex Twin concerts have become more terrifying. Because, you know, that's exactly what they needed. See Hodgin's hack, and its implementation into a New Year's Eve Aphex Twin concert, after the break.
Kinect hack turns you into a superhero
Here's a prime example of the importance of knowing your audience. Plenty of fully-formed games for Microsoft's Kinect hardware have been market researched and lovingly crafted, but peering into our souls with his Ultra Eye, YouTube user "hogehoge335" has tapped into our most heart-felt desires. In seconds, his new hack transforms the user into an Emerium Beam-blasting, Eye Slugger-tossing super hero -- tokusatsu icon Ultraseven, specifically. We've been trying to think of a mature way to describe the video after the break, but our inner five-year-old has immobilized that part of our brains. So, in closing: He transforms! He can shoot lasers! He tosses his head thing! We want it! We want it!
Kinect Hacks: RUSE with gesture controls
At first, this video appears to show the Xbox 360 RTS R.U.S.E controlled using Kinect, but it's actually a ... clever deception: Evoluce's Wolfgang Herfurtner applied a Kinect interface to the PC version of R.U.S.E., allowing the in-game cursor to be controlled with motions. While there's a certain feeling of power, we're sure, that comes from managing an entire battlefield with sweeping hand movements, this appears to be a case in which being the controller is somewhat more unwieldy than being the person with a controller in hand. But while it looks to be an awkward replacement for the traditional mouse and keyboard on PC, it's a potential proof of concept for an RTS interface for consoles.
Kinect Hacks: Real-time (fake) X-ray
X-ray glasses are so 2010. We present for your consideration this Kinect hack from Technical University of Munich researchers, led by one Tobias Blum, who have created a "magic mirror" that lets you see your own skeleton. Okay, so it's not actually your skeleton, but data from some anonymous patient's CT scan, being mapped to your movements to create the spine-tingling effect. Still, make no bones about it: this is one of the more impressive Kinect hacks we've seen to date.
Kinect Hacks: A less terrifying robot
Ever since the (recently departed) Milo reared his adorable head, we've envisioned at bleak future of Kinect-powered robots ruling over mankind with an iron, articulated fist. We've even seen the beginnings of this inevitable transition. Thankfully, one Taylor Veltrop was smart enough to embed an all-important feature into his Kinect robot: human control. Remember, kids, if you want to keep control over your robots, they have to know who's boss.
Researchers use Kinect to play WoW
Microsoft's Kinect motion addon for the Xbox 360 has been a huge success, not only in the retail world but in the hacker community as well. We've seen some awesome mods for the Kinect in the past few months of its release -- and finally, we've combined the Kinect world with WoW. The USC Institute for Creative Technologies has released a program called FAAST (Flexible Action and Articulated Skeleton Toolkit) that allows the Kinect to be used as a controller for off-the-shelf games. Check out the video of Kinect being used to control a World of Warcraft character. The software emulator acts as a layer over the keyboard, reading movement as key presses. Personally, I love that the depth sensors of the Kinect can be used to move backwards and forwards by leaning forward and back. So awesome.
Kinect Hacks: World of Warcraft gets moving
Avid World of Warcraft players are always looking for that special something to incrementally boost their in-game performance -- little did they know that the greatest boost wouldn't come in the form of a legendary item, but rather a motion-detecting Kinect hack from researchers at USC.
Kinect Hacks: Make your own 80s music video
You might have believed that Kinect was created to usher in a new era of interactive wonderment. You'd be wrong though. Kinect was made for this, a music video for one Ollisixtynine. You'd be forgiven for assuming it was a lost video from the 80s (keytar and all). Kinect's promise is now fulfilled.
Kinect Hacks: First-person slipping
Full-body mapping isn't new to Kinect -- not even hacking it to control the MikuMikuDance is new. But this isn't the apparent innovation put on display by a Kinect tinkerer known as "Nao_u." The adventurous programmer combines Microsoft's camera sensor with a pair of Vuzix VR920 LCD glasses, allowing a player to see through Miku's eyes (projected in the VR920 head-mounted display), while controlling her in-game actions with body movements registered by Kinect. It's total first-person VR -- J-pop style -- with a $400 add-on! Feeling confident in his new body, Nao_u steps out onto a precariously placed i-beam (just where did that come from?). High above the sim city, he takes his first, wobbly steps. You can see where this is going (after the break) ...
OpenVizsla USB sniffer meets its funding goal, and then some
It's not iPad nano watch money -- seriously, what is? -- but with hours to go before the final bell, USB sniffer OpenVizsla has exceeded its initial funding goal by more than 400 percent. That's over $70,000 as of this writing, with about 510 backers including Stephen Fry, who was pretty vocal about his support (that must help). If you'll recall, the project -- from iPhone dev team and Twiizers virtuosos pytey and bushing -- aims to make a cheap USB analyzer that can help decode proprietary devices, the popular anecdote being it's the same concept used in the Kinect hack how-to. It's not too late to pledge, of course, and doing so will get you some special goodies. Need more convincing? We're gonna embed Alma the dog's video debut after the break.
Kinect Hacks: American Sign Language recognition
It seems so obvious: Using Kinect to help people learn American Sign Language. That's exactly what researchers at Georgia Tech College of Computing are working on, pairing Microsoft's oft-hacked motion sensing camera with custom software that previously required colored gloves kitted with wrist-mounted, 3-axis accelerometers. On a series of increasingly difficult tests, the software returned results with 100% accuracy, 99.98% accuracy, and 98.8% accuracy. These promising results mean the team will be working on updates including a larger vocabulary which necessitates the need of "hand shape features." The initial proof-of-concept demo launched with a small vocabulary that excluded them in favor of broader gestural movements with the arms and body. We imagine that reported fourfold increase in Kinect image resolution would have a major benefit here, should Microsoft ever release it.
