Exciting Kinect Stuff Already Coming Out

Just last week we learned that the Kinect had been hacked wide open and already we're seeing a flood of innovative stuff coming out. Jamie found a page with a lot of pictures and screenshots, and Engadget has more.

thx for helping us, Love M$

[alen]

this is cool and what's going to happen is M$ is going to take the code and use it to add new features to Kinect in future releases. just like apple does with iphone jailbreak code and JB'd features

Re:thx for helping us, Love M$

[Rosco P. Coltrane]

what's going to happen is M$ is going to take the code and use it to add new features to Kinect in future releases

No they won't. Microsoft is notoriously unable to reuse free (as in libre) software that can't be repackaged into a binary that they can sell for $$$ without releasing the source code for. It's just impossible for them because of their very nature as a closed-source software vendor. Any GPL code out there will not be touched by Microsoft with a 10 foot pole.

Also, if Microsoft wants to create high-tech apps for the Kinect, they have all the available R&D resources to do it on their own. There are a lot of very very smart people working for Microsoft, and if a bunch of unpaid hackers can turn the Kinect into something useful in a matter of hours, so can the Microsoft PhDs and code monkeys.

Re:Microsoft didn't get it

[js3]

They are a business. Their goal is to make money, not release cool things for hackers. What makes you think they don't have ideas for the kinect technology?

Re:thx for helping us, Love M$

[Goaway]

Or, you know, just write it yourself. You think a brightness control is so hard to write that you absolutely have to steal it?

Re:Not really been hacked,

[UnknowingFool]

Depends on the meaning of 'hack'. This does apply to the general meaning. I actually think this is better than any firmware changes. Legally, all people have done is reverse-engineered a software driver. MS may threaten all they want with all sorts of nonsense like the DMCA, but these hackers are covered legally. Any modifications might have gotten into some more grey areas.

Re:thx for helping us, Love M$

[Anonymous Coward]

Also, if Microsoft wants to create high-tech apps for the Kinect, they have all the available R&D resources to do it on their own. There are a lot of very very smart people working for Microsoft, and if a bunch of unpaid hackers can turn the Kinect into something useful in a matter of hours, so can the Microsoft PhDs and code monkeys.

Then how come they have never been able to write a better OS than, say, Linux?

Re:Too Cool

[intervex]

I think the magic of the hardware is in the infra-red grid scattering as seen in the night-shot video in the link and (I believe, but correct me if I'm wrong) hardware level processing of that returned data from the camera... I'm sure similar setups could be engineered, but the problem is environmental control... In order to make something distributable, you'd have to find a supplier of the same light scattering system as the software author, the same webcam(s) and the placement of everything would need to be precise... The kinect is an all in one solution to that, available nearly anywhere, cost effective, and very predictable... My girlfriend is going in to Occupational Therapy and recently did a study on assistive technologies, the constant theme for all those devices was insane price points. If you follow the link in the article and watch the video of yankeyan and his object recognition technology mash up using kinect as the hardware interface, it opens a world of possibilities for open-source and very affordable assistive technologies using the kinect. Just like the NY Times article about the iPad helping those with disabilities, I think the kinect could be another low cost assistive technology platform in it's infancy.

Re:Microsoft didn't get it

[gad_zuki!]

Exactly. I'm starting to dislike this narrative that has developed here, namely that MS doesn't know what it has and that they're going out of their way to stop people from hacking it.

1. I'm sure the researchers at MS know exactly what they have and that a lot of what you're seeing now has been in their labs for ages. Its just that MS isn't in the 3D video space and aren't trying to sell 3D video software for movie production or whatever.

2. From what I've read from the guy who built the first drivers, there isn't any crypto or other tricks to stop PCs from communicating with the Kinect. Its just a plain jane USB device.

3. At the end of the day the interesting parts of the Kinect are its software. If you wanted a stereo camera or something that could do 3D depth, there are items like this in the 3D space that do a hell of a lot more than VGA resolution.

4. MS is monetizing this technology again in Win8. Gestures are built into the OS, etc. Its not like Kinect doesn't have a future on the PC platform as a commercial device.

Oh well, back to your regularly scheduled "ZOMG MS IS EVIL!!" 2 minutes hate.

No.

[AcidPenguin9873]

Um, how about the fact that Microsoft came out with the Kinect in the first place? Isn't that pretty innovative? We wouldn't have a headline that reads "Exciting Kinect Stuff Already Coming Out" if not for a previous headline that read "Microsoft Releases Exciting New Input Device That They Spent R&D Money On For The Last Couple Years".

Sorry, but just because MS didn't fully develop and support everything someone in a dorm room can think of at the launch of their brand new hardware product doesn't mean they lack vision or innovation or whatever. Anything they release has to be supported in SDKs, APIs, be tested, etc., and that costs money and time. It's great that people are hacking it and coming up with new things to do with it, and I don't know why they tried to lock it down, but it's not locked down anymore, so who gives a crap?

Re:thx for helping us, Love M$

[Rosco P. Coltrane]

Then how come they have never been able to write a better OS than, say, Linux?

Look, I use Linux and I like it as much as the next guy, and I hate to break it to you, but Windows hasn't sucked since XP came out. It's actually a very decent and stable platform nowadays, and has been for a very long time.

The other thing is, most people think it's just natural that they can run Windows 7 on an 64-bit machine and run any old software made for XP-x86 or Vista, perhaps even Win 95 (I haven't tried) without problem. The level of backward-compatibility almost every release of Windows since 3.11 has managed to achieve is nothing short of amazing. Just ask a Mac guy who had to ditch his software collection every time Apple released a new MacOS... People don't give Microsoft enough credit for *that* marvel of engineering, because believe it or not, it works so well that people take it for granted. Me, it never ceases to amaze me...

This said, I prefer to run Linux for other reasons (chiefly that I can tinker, tweak it better than Windows and code for it without paying through the nose), but if I have work to do and Windows is the platform of choice, I use it because it works. I suggest you drop the Linux fanboi attitude if you want to be taken seriously when you talk about Microsoft.

Re:Microsoft didn't get it

[Lumpy]

Because they would have made MORE money.

This is the problem, they are running with blinders on.

Sell product X to Y users that have our Product Y... or sell product X to EVERYONE on the planet.

Selling to everyone is ALWAYS more profitable than locking it down. Only mentally retarded Low IQ Business degree holders and IP lawyers think the first is the most profitable.

Re:thx for helping us, Love M$

[Razalhague]

Companies don't patent things because they're hard, they patent things so that they can control their use.

Re:thx for helping us, Love M$

[hedwards]

Incompetent management. Had they gone back to the drawing board with Win 98 and focused on stability, reliability and speed they'd be quite a bit further down the road than they are now. But since they chose to build their features on an unstable base they've had to fight with the perceptions of poor quality and stability for years. Rather than just bite the bullet, admit that it's the case and fix it. Resulting in them doing things in Vista and 7 which should've been done in ME and XP.

Re:thx for helping us, Love M$

[SuricouRaven]

9x was beyond saving. That's way they abandoned it with XP - threw out all the horribly unstable 9x ideas and instead converted what used to be windows NT/2k in order to replace it.

Re:I wonder

[vlm]

Thats too much of an upgrade to keep calling it a Television. How about... a "telescreen" ? There is some prior art, err, literature...

yes that file editing thing

[tizan]

That is why linux is not going to get into mainstream desktop as every thing you want to change you have to
edit some mysterious files...oh wait ..

Re:I wonder

[BobMcD]

How long it will be till TVs come with Kinects built in, and can't be turned off.

I dunno, how long until they outlaw electrical tape?

Re:Too Cool

[BoberFett]

And then people wonder why we spend so much money on healthcare.

"I'm sorry sir, but you're affordable medical device simply won't do. Come back after you've spent another $100M, and we'll talk."