Three-dimensional video chat. Green screens without a green screen. Sophisticated 3-D-mapping robots. Real-time virtual bras.
This might sound like a rundown of the new gizmos on display at January's Consumer Electronics Showcase, but all of these near-future gadgets are actually available inside a box -- an Xbox.
Microsoft's motion-sensing Kinect camera was designed as a way for gamers to be able to control their Xboxes without a controller, but a legion of enterprising hackers saw no reason to stop there.
The device was built for gaming, but the technology involved isn't exactly child's play. The Kinect functions by beaming thousands of infrared dots throughout the room it's in, allowing it to draw a 3-D map of whatever is in front of it -- then tracking the way a player moves to control what happens in the game.
This sort of technology isn't new, but Kinect has taken what used to be an expensive piece of professional equipment and turned it into a widely available toy. But now that Internet communities of programmers have gotten their hands on it, some hackers are using their Kinects for practical purposes.
Jason Nelson plays in a small indie rock band in Minneapolis, and he'd been looking for a way to operate an arena light show on a scale his band could afford. Before, he had toyed with the notion of using a professional depth camera, but that wasn't too much cheaper than hiring someone to operate the spotlight manually.
Then this whole Kinect thing came around, and I was looking at some of the hacks, and the depth camera is essentially a laser rangefinder for cheap, he told AOL News. I said, 'All right, this might be what I need to complete my idea.'
With a little tinkering, he was able to get the Kinect to tell a spotlight how to follow him on stage, and now he's working on tweaking it so it can process a stage with an entire band on it.
[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V_Mv8WRXSQk&feature=player_embedded[/media]
Read full article: http://www.aolnews.com/weird-news/a...-maker-the-many-hacks-of-xbox-kinect/19741972
This might sound like a rundown of the new gizmos on display at January's Consumer Electronics Showcase, but all of these near-future gadgets are actually available inside a box -- an Xbox.
Microsoft's motion-sensing Kinect camera was designed as a way for gamers to be able to control their Xboxes without a controller, but a legion of enterprising hackers saw no reason to stop there.
The device was built for gaming, but the technology involved isn't exactly child's play. The Kinect functions by beaming thousands of infrared dots throughout the room it's in, allowing it to draw a 3-D map of whatever is in front of it -- then tracking the way a player moves to control what happens in the game.
This sort of technology isn't new, but Kinect has taken what used to be an expensive piece of professional equipment and turned it into a widely available toy. But now that Internet communities of programmers have gotten their hands on it, some hackers are using their Kinects for practical purposes.
Jason Nelson plays in a small indie rock band in Minneapolis, and he'd been looking for a way to operate an arena light show on a scale his band could afford. Before, he had toyed with the notion of using a professional depth camera, but that wasn't too much cheaper than hiring someone to operate the spotlight manually.
Then this whole Kinect thing came around, and I was looking at some of the hacks, and the depth camera is essentially a laser rangefinder for cheap, he told AOL News. I said, 'All right, this might be what I need to complete my idea.'
With a little tinkering, he was able to get the Kinect to tell a spotlight how to follow him on stage, and now he's working on tweaking it so it can process a stage with an entire band on it.
[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V_Mv8WRXSQk&feature=player_embedded[/media]
Read full article: http://www.aolnews.com/weird-news/a...-maker-the-many-hacks-of-xbox-kinect/19741972
