Kinect hacking is taking off at blinding speed. Microsoft's Kinect motion controller for XBox 360 is less than a month old, and it's been barely two weeks since Adafruit announced a winner in their Open Kinect competition.
The Kinect motion sensor
Since then, Microsoft has tacitly endorsed opening up the Kinect as a platform, and it seems like there's a new Kinect hack every couple of hours. It can be tough to keep up with a phenomenon that's gone from nothing to a full blown scene in less than a month, so as a service to you we're rounding up our favorite Kinect hacks thus far. Click on the titles to see a video of each hack in action.
Spain-based hacker Hector Martin Cantero (AKA "marcan") released a proof-of-concept video showing the Kinect interfacing with his Linux-based laptop: a mere two days after the device's European release. Marcan walked home with $3000 in cash for his efforts, after winning Adafruit's Open Kinect Bounty. Interested hackers can check out Marcan's code here.
#2 Interactive Puppet Prototype
I can't tell if I should be more impressed with the implications for children's games or with the fact that this whole project only took a day to put together.
Using Kinect as a gesture control interface for Windows 7 means we're another step closer to the Minority Report future. See our original story on this hack.
#4 Atsushi Tadokoro's photostream
Oooh... pretty.
This is a short video to be sure, but also extremely evocative. Hold on a sec, I'm just imagining the digital ghost video game this leads to.
#6 ROS + Kinect
In case using your Kinect to control your computer wasn't impressive enough, how about using your Kiect to control your robot?
Finally, we've created a new ideal platform for Star Wars games!
#8 Reflection
This cool little hack uses the Kinect to let you play back, and fight with, your own Shadow.
From flight404 who's also responsible for the Black and White video. He's doing a ton of interesting work with putting Kinect Data through all kinds of cool filters. I'd really suggest checking out his whole vimeo channel.
Does what it says on the box.
[For more Kinect hacks you can check out KinectHacks.net; Kinect hacks look like they're here to stay.]
Related articles:
Hacker turns Kinect for Xbox 360 into Kinect for Linux PCs
Kinect for Xbox 360: So hardcore it will kill your Grandma
