The Microsoft Kinect represents its attempt to steal the Wii's thunder, and it work pretty dang well. Watch this video for a guide to plugging the Kinect into your XBox 360 and setting up your gaming area so that you'll be able to play it. Once you're done with all that and t ...more
The Kinect is sure to swarm the homes of Xbox 360 gamers this holiday season. Even though some of us are amazed at the hands-free gaming capabilities it offers, others feel it to be frustratingly limited. Adafruit Industries is one of them. They recently held a competition wi ...more
Since the release of Microsoft's Kinect, there's been no shortage of useful and fun hacks. In the past, we've seen the Kinect modded for things like x-ray vision, World of WarCraft gameplay, air guitar and 3D video. And now there's even a use for all of you MineCraft gamers! ...more
Back in 2008, media artist Kyle McDonald created a 3D interface that could track movement, which he turned into a virtual Tic-tac-toe game. Video: . In this tutorial, MAKE teaches us how to build one at home using cardboard, aluminum foil, an Arduino, and some basic parts from ...more
Thanks to Project-Infrared, there's now a pretty straightforward way to add motion tracking to the HoloLens: Connect it to a Kinect. Wavelength LLC's created a way to get the Microsoft Kinect working as a motion-tracking input device for HoloLens, which my colleague Adam Dach ...more
Quartz Composer is a Mac program that helps you manipulated motion capture video, and you can hack your Xbox Kinect to send motion captured data to your Mac OSX. This tutorial shows you precisely how you can use the Kinect tools to pull this off!
Screw gaming, let's get to the serious stuff! Here's an amazing video of a Kinect hack that lets one see what its camera sees - in 3D. Instead of 2D images of motion capture, we get the full spatial view. Think of the "bullet time" effect in The Matrix (freeze, rotate, conti ...more
In 2007, Nintendo introduced the world to motion control video games with the Wii. Microsoft and Sony built on Nintendo's phenomenal success and released their own motion control products for the XBox 360 and Playstation 3 late in 2010: the Kinect and the Move. The Move is bas ...more
Video games and art have somewhat of a sticky relationship. Many video games have large teams of talented artists doing amazingly creative work, and yet the art community is only just beginning to utilize video games as art (sometimes). Perhaps if video games were shown not ju ...more
It's been a long time coming, but Microsoft has finally released a software development kit (SDK) for the Kinect on Windows 7 PCs. The word "hacking" is no longer needed, thanks to the free beta download available at Microsoft Research that allows anyone with a Windows compute ...more
Nobody could predict the success of Microsoft's Kinect, not even Microsoft themselves. So, it was quite a surprise when it ended up earning a Guinness World Record for fastest-selling consumer electronics device, and an even bigger surprise to see people buying one that didn't ...more
From Major Nelson, Xbox 360's spokeperson: Kinect Pricing: Existing Xbox 360 owners can purchase Kinect and Kinect Adventures for $149.99 (U.S. ERP). Remember, Kinect will work with every Xbox 360 ever made. Xbox 360 4GB Console: The new Xbox 360 4GB Console includes built i ...more
ProjectKinectMagicMirror combines augmented reality and CT-scan imagery to create a virtual "X-ray machine." Another amazing Microsoft Kinect hack to add to the vault. The ingenuity is infectious... Get inspired. Make-your-own. Video: . More Kinect Hacks: Hacked Kinect Captur ...more
Even though the Kinect has been on the market for over a year, Microsoft's motion sensing device is far from old news. In fact, Microsoft announced at this year's Consumer Electronics Show (CES) that the Kinect for Windows hardware and accompanying software is finally arriving ...more
Images captured by Microsoft's next generation Kinect depth-sensing camera that will facilitate augmented reality experiences in the next version of the HoloLens and give computer vision to untold multitudes of connected devices in enterprise facilities, have made their way in ...more
That Kinect you bought for your Xbox 360? More than just a game controller, it's a bonafide hologram generator! In the clip below, UC Davis researcher Dr. Oliver Kreylos demos the process. The fun stuff begins at the :44 mark. Kreylos explains, "By combining the color and the ...more
It's remarkable that a gaming device (from Microsoft, no less) designed for geeky gamers has incited broad innovation in medicine and robotics. But that Kinect has captured the imagination of hackers-with-MBAs-in-mind is downright amazing. Below, six videos demonstrating a va ...more
Nintendo's Wii Remote came close, but never has a video game peripheral garnered such adoration from the hacker community than the Kinect. Since the release of Microsoft's controller-free gaming device last November, there has literally been thousands of fun and useful projec ...more
This tutorial is for those who have just gotten the newly released Kinect, and are wondering how you will be able to update your jtag into your Kinect. Make sure you have a USB flash drive before you start updating!
The world has been overflowing with Microsoft Kinect hacks, each more amazing than the last. The latest innovation, created by a group of engineers at USC, promises an exciting future in gaming (and gets gamers off their asses). The program is called FAAST, and allows for full ...more
The Kinect is finally here, poised to make game consumers forget the Wii ever existed. If you've got a Kinect, gotten it all plugged in, but are wondering what to do next, watch this video. It will walk you through the process of setting up and configuring your Kinect on the X ...more
Our hacked Kinect series has demonstrated amply how the Kinect is changing the worlds of business, art, medicine and robotics. But where does it go from here? That will be determined by the thousands of dedicated DIYers out there doing work like you've seen here over the last ...more
Here's another cool hack using the Kinect, albeit one beyond the reach of most of us. Some students, staff, and professors at MIT have developed "hand detection" software using the Kinect's motion sensor. Below is a demonstration of this software. It recalls Tom Cruise's icon ...more
Microsoft's Kinect is gaining popularity with Xbox 360 owners, but what's really more fun? Playing games with this revolutionary hands-free gaming device or gutting the sucker to see what it's all about? We'll take the latter choice. If you're interested in taking apart your ...more
What was your first experience with Kinect? Mine was through my friend Robert. (He's in the blue shirt above.) I was over at his place, and he and his girlfriend had just gotten a Kinect. After much futzing with the Kinect because it kept falling off their flatscreen TV, they ...more
Maybe not Muhammad Ali, but you can definitely learn how to dominate the ring when you try boxing with Kinect Sports. This video shows you three moves that you can use to win nearly every boxing match you play using your Kinect.
If you have an iPad, you can hack a Kinect and connect them together so you can redefine the Kinect's planes of interest. You can even used the accelerometer in the iPad to transfer data to your Kinect and display the results on a computer screen.
Think beautiful bokeh photography + just a hint of TRON sensuality and you have photographer Audrey Penven's lovely series entitled "Dancing with Invisible Light: A series of interactions with Kinect's infrared structured light". Penven's process is quite interesting: "With ...more
In the world of developers, a "sandbox game" is video game where players are free to "roam a virtual world and change any factor at will"; these types of games demand creativity on the player's part, with no linear/"correct" way to play. Players are typically given infinite l ...more
With Microsoft's release of the Kinect SDK, things seem to have slowed down a bit in the world of Kinect development. Have developers exhausted the uses of Kinect already? No way! Four researchers at Cornell University have created an AI-based system on the Kinect that can rec ...more
Here is a more concrete - and amazing - application of the Minority Report fantasy that the Kinect enables. A group at MIT has rigged up the Kinect to act as a controller for a web browser. Sort of like a touch screen, minus the touching. This video had me gasping and utterin ...more
Thanks to Microsoft’s XBOX 360 motion-detecting system, Kinect, the world is becoming a play place for sci-fi style virtual reality. One of the latest hacks demonstrates the next best thing to regular old air guitar... virtual reality air guitar: Artist Chris O'Shea explains h ...more
The new Harry Potter movie is in theaters today, but while most of you are eating popcorn and enjoying the first flick of the last part in the series, others will be home getting their Harry Potter fix with the new video game, appropriately called Harry Potter and the Deathly ...more
As the opening act to the grand unveiling of the long-awaited HoloLens 2 at Mobile World Congress Barcelona on Sunday, Microsoft showed off the standalone Azure Kinect time of flight sensor, which also happens to supply the improved human and environmental understanding capabi ...more
The Kinect is more than just a toy for your Xbox 360. While it's primarily a gaming accessory, it's also a fairly powerful high-tech camera. This tutorial shows you how you can use a Kinect to measure objects in 3D, using the Kinect's own box.
It's no surprise that the Microsoft Kinect can provide far better motion tracking than the HoloLens currently can on its own, but at least one developer didn't want to wait for the company's own eventual implementation. Kyle G, founder and CEO of Wavelength Studios, projected ...more
The Kinect is a powerful piece of technology you can use to do more than just play games. This tutorial shows you how to construct a basic green screen using the Kinect, and then you can use the Wiimote for even greater 3-D functionality.
This is a great way you can mod your new Kinect - wire up the Kinect to a laser projector. All you need is OpenCV (an open source computer vision library) and a cardboard box to train your Kinect with.
A Kinect is a great new toy for tracking motion, especially since it is more forgiving about lighting conditions and extraneous motion than most other cameras. Here's how you can set up your own Kinect as a motion capture camera.
This tutorial shows you how to get started hacking your Xbox Kinect. You will need a high quality USB analyzer between the Kinect and the Xbox for this to work, and then you can start streaming data from your Kinect onto your computer.
Microsoft's Monday keynote introduced the fourth generation of the company's Kinect sensor during Build 2018 in Seattle. The latest iteration, Project Kinect for Azure, gives enterprise companies the power of spatial understanding for connected devices in their factories and ...more
Bit of a troll bait on Kinect, but funny nonetheless.
Whether your have the old 'fat' Xbox 360, or are lucky enough to have the newer, slimmer version, this tutorial shows you how to set up a Kinect with both models. Make sure you have all the right cords before you start!
Imagine being able to walk into your living room and have your Xbox 360 recognize your face and sign into your Xbox live account. Actually, don't imagine it- watch this Kinect ID video guide and learn how to make it happen today.
Just got a brand new Kinect for Xbox 360? This tutorial walks you through all the steps of setting up your Kinect, including microphone and speaker calibration and how you can set up your playspace. Now you're ready to play!
Has anyone actually used the Kinect for fitness purposes? If so, which games are the best? There are already a slew of fitness games (and reviews for them) available. But I have better things to do than slog through a ton of maybe-helpful reviews. So I thought I'd see if I c ...more
It's not just for playing video games! Strap a Kinect to a Roomba and wire it together with an embedded wireless-N computer, a range finder, voltage distribution board and an external Li-Poly battery. And voila, you have your own custom made robot!
A demonstration of Ubisoft's Your Shape: Fitness Evolved for the Xbox 360's Kinect. This was probably the best demonstration for Kinect out of the whole conference. The game will come out around the same time of the launch of Kinect in November. Here is a blurb from Everybody ...more
Play Kinect at the four Microsoft stores around the US right now! You can even play Dance Central!From 1up:If you're itching to play Kinect, you don't have to wait until it launches this fall. The official Microsoft Store Twitter account tweeted today: "Can't wait to play #Kin ...more
whooooo.. a new dashboard, how exiting! People are uploading their beta kinect dashboards that we will be seeing in about two months or so.
Yup. That's Natal's official name. Good lord.http://www.xbox.com/en-US/community/events/e3/kinect.htm
e3 Premieres the XBOX MotionCapture Add-on via Adam B. Vary at Entertainment Weekly Remember last year, e3's most hyped announcement was the XBOX that turned your whole body into a Wiimote? Is it all we dreamed it would be? Check out the review from EW.com insider. "After a ...more
lol he danced better than his father.
Don't be greedy, sharing is caring. If you have a brand new Xbox One, let some friends and family in on the action by getting a few extra controllers. You can connect up to eight controllers on one Xbox One console. Now that's a gamer party waiting to happen. Connecting your ...more
Let's just say it's been a pretty bad year for spies and government agencies and an even worse one for the privacy of U.S. citizens. Edward Snowden blew the lid off the NSA's spy program, and the FBI was recently discovered to have the ability to access your webcam any time th ...more
In this first part of my series on getting started with Windows Holographic, we are going to cover everything you need to get set up for developing HoloLens apps. There are many pieces coming together to make one single application, but once you get used to them all, you won't ...more
Most of the indie and vintage games discussed in Indie Games Ichiban are pretty cheap to purchase. They rarely top twenty bucks, which is one of the major advantages independent games have against their sixty-buck, major league counterparts. But if you think $60 for a game and ...more
This year, like every year before it, Black Friday sales are starting earlier than ever. A lot of stores will be opening their doors as early as 5pm on Thanksgiving to get a head start on the madness (and it really is madness). As we've discussed in the past, one of the keys t ...more
Facial recognition software is being more widely used with every passing day. Your local law enforcement is probably already using it, and it will be even easier for them now that the FBI handed out its own facial recognition software to state authorities. Even the fine folks ...more