kinect-hacks
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Kinect Hacks: 'holographic' video chat
Seek sanctuary within the virtual setting of this latest Kinect hack, which uses the tech to create a real-time "holographic" person set in a virtual office space. Created by Oliver Kreylos of UC Davis, the hack uses two Kinect cameras to create the 3D representation and a Wiimote for "head tracking." The quality isn't great, but apparently there's a fix in the works. This Kinect hack adds to other demonstrations of creativity we've seen since the peripheral launched over a month ago, which include vehicular, musical and titillating examples of what the tech can do outside of its first batch of games.
(NSFW) Kinect Hacks: Sex game interface
It's finally happened: They've come up with a way to touch virtual breasts using the Kinect sensor. ThriXXX, a company that makes (you guessed it) sex games, has announced that it's created a Kinect hack to utilize the sensor as a control input for its "sim" games.
Kinect Hacks: Keyboard Anywhere slaps a keyboard almost anywhere
Finally, a chance to re-enact our favorite scene from Big -- and also watch two guys recreate it! The latest Kinect Hack is simply called Keyboard Anywhere, an apt title because that's pretty much what it does. You can size the keyboard based on your space -- the video past the break shows it being applied to several different surfaces, including a desk and the floor. Hit the jump to see it in action.
Kinect Hacks: Self-driving car
Kinect has already gained the ability to fly, and now it can drive. Researchers at University of Bundeswehr Munich attached a Kinect sensor and a laptop to a small (formerly) remote-controlled car, loaded it with software based on the program used to run the MuCAR-3 in the DARPA Urban Challenge, and made a tiny, self-navigating car. In the video after the break, the adorable little robot proves that it can carefully avoid obstacles -- even really tiny traffic cones. We're left with only one question after this demonstration: where can we get our own tiny traffic cones?
PrimeSense releases open source drivers, middleware that work with Kinect
The global hacking community has already done an admirable job of exploiting the technology inside Kinect, but now would-be motion control designers can get the tech straight from the source. PrimeSense, the company that created the motion-sensing tech inside each Kinect, has released open source drivers that will work either with Kinect or its own dev kit, which Develop notes is "smaller and lighter" than a Kinect unit. PrimeSense has partnered with two other companies to create OpenNI, a not-for-profit organization set up to "promote the compatibility and interoperability of Natural Interaction (NI) devices, applications and middleware." The drivers are available on the OpenNI website, as is the NITE motion tracking middleware. OpenNI binaries are available for both Windows and Ubuntu. With some pretty amazing Kinect projects already out there, we can't wait to see what comes of this officially backed software release. Check out a quick demonstration of the software's skeleton tracking capabilities after the break.
Kinect Hacks: True shredding potential unlocked with Kinect air guitar
Programmer/artist Chris O'Shea has tapped even more of the Kinect's potential as a nerd fantasy-fulfillment device -- using its hand-tracking abilities, he's turned the gadget into an air guitar simulator. Check out the video after the jump to watch his wild gesticulations turn into sweet riffs.
Kinect Hacks: MIT gets Minority Report UI to work, look at those fingers go!
A full Minority Report interface is one of the endgame dreams of Kinect hackers. We've seen plenty of brilliant Kinect hacks so far, but this latest one by members of the MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory is the closest thing we've seen to the dream. The hack uses several components to distinguish fingers, allowing hand detection of 60,000 points at 30 frames a second. If you want to go down the rabbit hole of techno-babble gobbledygook (yes, it's a scientific term), you can go here. For those who just want to see something cool, go past the break.
Kinect Hacks: DaVinci drawing interface, flying machine
Two more crazy Kinect hacks have been captured on video, making a nice thematic pairing. First, Razorfish's DaVinci software has been ported to Kinect, allowing users to draw onscreen by making gestures, and then interact with those drawn objects Crayon Physics-style. Second, researchers at UC Berkeley's Hybrid Systems lab mounted a Kinect on an autonomous quadracopter, allowing the machine to sense its surroundings in 3D. You know who else invented a crazy helicopter thing? That's right -- Da Vinci! We told you there was a theme. Check out both videos after the break, and ponder the question: if Kinect can now fly around on its own, why would it want to stay home and play MotionSports with you?
Kinect Hacks: Optical camouflage turns you into the Predator
These Kinect hacks just keep getting better and better. This latest is from YouTube user TakayukiFukatsu and turns him invisible. Just let that sink in for a moment then hop past the break to see him do his best Kevin Bacon impression.
Kinect Hacks: Playing Minecraft with Kinect
At first blush, using Kinect to control Minecraft might seem like a great idea. This latest Kinect hack, created by YouTube user leparlon, allows players to look and walk in Minecraft. It certainly looks neat, but we can already think of a problem: We're really not looking forward to using our hands to chop down trees for hours at a time. Just think about it: You're using physical motions to control a game solely about manual labor. Maybe leparlon's next Kinect project will hack in a few turbo buttons.
Kinect hacked into Super Mario Bros. emulator controller
YouTube user Yankeyan recently showed off one of the cleverest Kinect hacks we've seen to date: He's managed to use the motion-sensing gadget to control Super Mario Bros. 1 - 3 on an NES emulator. Well, he kind of controls it. We've never seen anyone work so hard to grab that first mushroom before.
Kinect hacks: Use Kinect to navigate the web, resize koalas
A new Kinect hack -- dubbed "DepthJS" -- allows Microsoft's frequently repurposed camera to interact with a web browser via Javascript. Its creators, from the MIT Media Lab Fluid Interfaces Group, envision "all sorts of applications that run in the browser," and demonstrate fairly simple website navigation in their video (embedded after break). Making a fist enables selection, a semi-dismissive swatting motion allows scrolling, and giving it the finger automatically posts a hateful comment on a game review you didn't agree with. (Okay, that last thing isn't true.) Meanwhile, Evoluce, a Munich-based software company, has shown Microsoft Windows 7 applications being controlled through Kinect. The associated video shows multi-touch support, with the user being able to zoom in on images or draw using two hands at once. It also makes resizing pictures of adorable animals very easy, which should come in handy for your bandwidth-limited nature blog.
Kinect support coming to XNA 'in the future'
Good news: Microsoft has plans to offer Kinect development tools to XNA developers. Confirmation comes via Xbox director of incubation Alex Kipman, who said during an interview on Talk of the Nation that, while there's no current Kinect functionality in XNA, it's something Microsoft "will support in the future." Honestly, we're thrilled -- haven't you seen some of the awesome stuff people are coming up with ... without the proper toolset? The Talk of the Nation episode on which Kipman appeared focused on Xbox 360's new camera peripheral, which Microsoft is pleased to see developers tinkering around with ... to a degree. Hacking the device, which Microsoft classifies as someone accessing "algorithms on the side of the Xbox" for ill-use, or someone exploiting Kinect in a cheating manner is not tolerated. Creating a driver that might "open the USB connection" or one that "reads the inputs from the sensor," on the other hand, are uses that are totally cool by Microsoft. Microsoft offered no timetable for when Kinect support would come to XNA, so in the meantime, keep those "good" hacks coming!
Kinect hacks: Chest tracking, grotesque morphing, MIDI music and more
Homebrew developers continue to do much more interesting things with the Kinect sensor than have been done in any of the retail games so far. Two recent projects manage to use the sensor for proof-of-concept programs that are simultaneously sophisticated and kind of juvenile. Dan Wilcox rigged up Kinect to see a human body and estimate approximately where the chest area would be on that body ... and then display either a bra or pasties over that area. Of course it's called "Titty Tracker." And Robert "Flight404" Hodgin created a program that generates a 3D model of the person in view of the Kinect, and then distorts that model to create some kind of puffy monster. The point isn't to create nightmare fuel, it's just proof of the open-source Cinder software's ability to access Kinect data. Other hacks can be found in this roundup, including one that renders people entirely in horizontal white lines, one that uses movement with a MIDI controller to turn the Kinect into a sort of theremin and a head-tracking program.
Video: Kinect repurposed for puppetry
This Kinect-based prototype should be relevant to your interests, particularly in how it allows the user to manipulate and find expression in a virtual puppet. Projected against a wall, a wide-eyed bird copies the movements of Emily Gobeille's arm, much like a shadow would. As Kinect tracks the silhouette formed by her shoulder, elbow and wrist, the bird can be made to look around and even squawk. The video, submitted by Design I/O, shows impressive tracking accuracy from Kinect (right down to the shape and position of the hand), and yet another interesting application that you won't find in the camera's batch of launch games. Designer Theo Watson noted in the video's comments: "it allows for really easy person detection and a cleaner silhouette. with a regular IR camera we would have to worry about the color of the clothes people are wearing, or do backlighting with IR lamps. The Kinect also gives us the z distance of each joint - which means we could in theory have the puppet turn to face the viewer :)" And you'd be staring into the future of gaming, folks. Imagine playing UFO Catcher as the claw and winning every time!
Kinect enables robot to become aware of its surroundings -- oh, and detect humans
Robots are adorable. And sometimes, you just want to gift them the ability to see and learn more about their human creators. That's exactly what MIT's Philipp Robbel has done with a hacked Kinect sensor and an iRobot Create Robot.
Hacked Kinect renders interactive 'almost holographic' 3D video
Would you care to see the clever, combined output of Kinect's depth recognition and its video capture? The 3D effect is incomplete, since the camera can only see from one angle, but it offers a fascinating look at Kinect's capabilities.
Homebrewer develops PC Kinect photo app
Just a couple of days after the release of an open-source Kinect driver, coder floemuc has developed a proof-of-concept PC application for the sensor. In the video after the break, floemuc uses Kinect to track his hand movements, allowing him to manipulate and resize photos. He hasn't released the software, unfortunately. "I thought I'd get the mandatory picture-browsing stuff done," he said in the YouTube description, "so it's out of the way and everybody can focus on more interesting things." It's nice to find out that people are thinking about using Kinect to do the cool Minority Report stuff, instead of just the gross ad-personalization bits.
Open source Kinect camera driver released
Well, that didn't take very long. Just two days after NUI Group's AlexP announced that he had managed to access Kinect's functionality via PC, a lone hacker by the name of Hector Martin has managed the same thing. What's more, Martin has openly released his code to the public. NUI Group, for what it's worth, is busy creating a Kinect SDK and will release it once the group receives a certain level of monetary donations. See Martin's results after the break. For those brave enough (and good enough with code), Martin's Kinect driver can be downloaded here. Keep in mind that the driver does little more than display what the Kinect "sees" at this point, specifically the RGB and depth-sensing camera feeds. Without software to utilize it, the driver is essentially just a fun party trick ... for now.
Hacker disconnects Kinect from Microsoft's control
It seems we're one step closer to creating that Kinect-headed robot we've been dreaming of, as NUI Group's AlexP has managed to break through at least some of the software tying the device to the Xbox 360. As the videos below the fold show, the peripheral's "NUI motor" (Natural User Interface motor) is handled by a basic Windows 7 application allowing it to nod its head up and down (knowingly, we'd wager). Another video displays how Kinect handles color and depth, while a third shows us how Kinect sees us (thankfully, it doesn't classify what it sees as "edible" or "non-edible"). This comes just days after open-source developer Adafruit offered a cool $2K to the first person to bust through Kinect's locks. Microsoft has responded accordingly, stating: "Microsoft does not condone the modification of its products. With Kinect, Microsoft built in numerous hardware and software safeguards designed to reduce the chances of product tampering. Microsoft will continue to make advances in these types of safeguards and work closely with law enforcement and product safety groups to keep Kinect tamper-resistant." Now all we have to do is wait for hackers to unlock for Kinect's love core and we've got ourselves an early Wall-E prototype in the making -- the head, anyway.
