If you’ve been watching for the Nyko Zoom for Kinect, the space-shrinking lens system that allows you to use the Kinect in a smaller room, you only have a little over two months to go. The kit will ship on August 23 for $29.99. We covered the Zoom at E3 this year and you can see me try it out after the jump. → Read More
This isn’t the first Kinect Tetris hack out there. In fact I wouldn’t call it the most elegant. But it’s certainly one of the most intense and bordering on exercise. It looks like P90x meets Nintendo, which makes me wonder if it’s awesome or work. Click through for the video. → Read More
This project is part of a bachelor’s thesis by Armin Ambühl and involves a quadrocopter, a Kinect sensor, and what I assume is dark magic.
To activate the copter the user lifts his arm and to stop it he claps. The rest of the interaction is performed by swinging his arms around to rotate and steer the vehicle. What was it that Arthur C. Clarke said? → Read More
Microsoft has just announced a new SDK for Windows that allows programmers to take input from the Kinect and use it in their homebrew projects. This will allow users to create games, UIs, and apps with Kinect’s 3D sensing technology including 3D scanning, audio tracking, and the creation of 3D wireframes in real time. → Read More
At E3, while checking out both the Wii U and the Vita, I was struck by the creative possibilities these novel control methods provided. Developers can be immensely creative people, and with the right one, something like a rear touch surface can become a truly powerful gameplay device. Tetsuya Mizuguchi, creator of Rez and Lumines, is especially excited about these new technologies, and I for one… → Read More
We have shown you quite a few obscure Kinect videos in the last few months, but this one is a bit special: it shows a robot geek from the Nara Institute Of Science And Technology (NAIST) in Japan dancing rumba with a Roomba, with the Xbox device capturing his movements. → Read More
The Nyko Zoom is a great idea. It’s basically a lens set that sits over your Kinect that reduces the space the Kinect needs to sense you in three dimensions. That way you can feasibly stand just a few feet from the Kinect and do all your running and jumping without fear of falling into furniture.
Specifically, the device reduces the necessary space needed to play Kinect by 40%. We tested it… → Read More
Want to experience the joy of Kinect, but happen to have a small living room? Nyko wants to help you out. They also want to help you out if you are in any way unhappy with your 3DS. Well, no, it can’t actually make the 3D “sweet spot” bigger, but their new accessories do help in other ways. → Read More
Alright, finally. Microsoft released the Kinect last year with games that turned out to be to nothing more than virtual parlor games. But today at the company’s E3 2011 presser, they took the wraps off the first round of games that finally seem to be meant for gamers — you know, gamers as in people that enjoy virtual killing and such. The headliner? Oh it must be Star Wars Kinect. → Read More
Kinect Fun Labs is a demo system for new Kinect technologies. For example, a new system called Kinect Me creates an avatar that looks just like you. You capture your face and hair and clothing and then it creates an avatar that looks just like you. → Read More
A couple of the team are in line at the Galen Center, waiting for admission to Microsoft’s big E3 press conference, but as with last year, the secrets were too big to hold for some. Or, more likely, someone got their east coast/west coast timing messed up (I’m as guilty of this as anyone) and pubbed some updates at 9:30AM Eastern time instead of Pacific. What beans were spilled? Oh, nothing. Just… → Read More
While I can’t imagine anyone would want to perform the feats demonstrated in this video, what you’re seeing is basically a hack that allows users to control PC programs – including Powerpoint – using the Kinect. Why? Because it’s there.
At IIT Delhi, a technologist named Ramaprasanna showed off his proof-of-concept demo using an unreleased Kinect SDK. Obviously you’re not going to get this on… → Read More
Some French hackers have put together a program that uses the Kinect to detect certain hand gestures (which is, after all, what it was designed to do) and translate them into words. Right now it only recognizes “hello” and “sorry,” but the team is only just now teaching it words — the “build” period is over, and now it’s time to learn.
Check out the video inside. → Read More
It is rare to find a gaming accessory so ham-handed and ridiculous that you just know this is going to be a patent troll situation where they start suing Microsoft Kinect for stealing their “gaming standing up” idea. But you have to hand it to this guy for his tenacity. There are plenty of YouTube videos up showing him showing it off and the real money shot is where he’s brought in a “real… → Read More
Hackers poring through the leaked Windows 8 M1 build have found some interesting evidence suggesting that Microsoft’s next OS may automatically recognize its users, a la Kinect. → Read More
The Kinect chair was arguably yesterday’s biggest news. The pics we posted just didn’t do it justice so there are a couple videos embedded here for your amusement. With this we’re one step closer to living a carefree life in self-propelled armchairs aboard a massive starship. I can’t wait to get fat with the rest of you. It’s going to be glorious. → Read More
The Kinect is big news and is currently on a march to take over the Xbox ecosystem with Netflix now supporting the motion controller. The update should hit, well, now. Mr. Xbox Major Nelson states that an update will be available the next time you fire up the Netflix app that adds the necessary bits. From there you should be able to control the entire app with your voice and hands. Stop, pause… → Read More
The Kinect has already powered countless awesome hacks but even a motion-controlled mini humanoid isn’t in the same room as this Microsoft-built armchair. The MIX11 crowd pleaser was built using the upcoming Kinect PC SDK that opens up development over Visual Basic, C++, C#. The chair itself is powered just by hand motions — even reclining — and feature omnidirectional wheels… → Read More
A few details have emerged at MIX11 regarding Kinect for Windows—“few” being the operative word. For example, the beta SDK will include support for two-person skeletal tracking, making two-player games or Windows applications a distinct possibility. → Read More
Check out this Kinect-controlled Parrot AR Drone. The man operating the AR Drone shows that you’re never too old to be a pretend airplane. → Read More
You knew something like this was coming as soon as Microsoft announced the Kinect way back when. It’s UFC Personal Trainer, and it’s exactly as you’d expect: flail about in front of your TV while an on-screen avatar carries out the moves. THQ says the National Academy of Sports Medicine helped design the game, and pro fighter gave their input as well. Hearings before the California State Athletic… → Read More
Let’s start our post-WrestleMania Monday with a fun video of what could be. Here we see a gentleman, from Evoluce, controlling Windows 7 using Kinect. Minority Report, etc. → Read More
Who will survive the Tomb of Immortal Darkness? It’s a new five-man dungeon coming to World of Warcraft that’s “deep beneath the crumbling tombstones of Duskwood’s Raven Hill Cemetery.” (Incidentally, Duskwood is my favorite old world area. Oh, the memories.) The dungeon uses Deep Dark technology to give players the ultimate challenge: navigating an instance in total darkness. Is your toon… → Read More
One of the games for Kinect that I’m genuinely excited about is Child of Eden, from the geniuses behind the mesmerizing Rez and Lumines. The system seems just perfect for it, and the aesthetic is… well, just watch the trailer. → Read More
And yet another Kinect hack: Japan-based web company Kayac has set up some kind of semi-closed “cyberspace booth” [JP] in a department store in Tokyo, in which the “experience” is largely based on the Microsoft sensor. The booth is supposed to “reproduce the cyberspace of Ghost in the Shell – Stand Alone Complex(S.A.C.)”, a famous science-fiction anime series. → Read More
Once again I am pleasantly surprised with the truly useful and helpful applications being thought up for the Kinect. Just last week we saw a hack providing a rudimentary artificial vision system for the blind — clumsy and rough, but the idea that it’s possible from off-the-shelf components and open-source software is mind-blowing.
Now we see an incredibly practical medical application… → Read More
This is really more of a “just ‘cuz” Kinect hack than one of those practical ones we see occasionally. Yes, hacker Shantanu Goel has rigged up his Kinect to work with its greatest enemy, the PS3. Where is your Move now?! → Read More
Gamasutra had a good interview with Sony’s head of R&D, Dr. Richard Marks — it’s well worth the read. They talk about how he got his start in high school at a game shop his pop owned playing loads of old school games. He then moved on to study aerospace engineering in college where he found his love for robotics. Something he says is very similar to video gaming. → Read More
Many of the hacks we’ve seen for the Kinect, interesting as they are, are aimed at entertainment or just plain coolness. There are plenty of exceptions, though, like the medical monitor we heard about yesterday, or the several telepresence robots we’ve seen that have a multitude of uses.
This hack definitely belongs in the latter category; helping blind people see? I don’t think Microsoft… → Read More
While the Kinect’s biggest selling point is, of course, the “you are the controller” thing, it’s obvious that a depth-sensing color video camera like this has plenty of applications we haven’t thought of. The variety of hacks for it are testament enough, but this interesting-looking game/hack Geek Run brings in a new one to me.
http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2011/03/geek-run-a-kinect-game.html → Read More
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