Hacking Kinect

[spacepainter]

http://m.engadget.com/default/article.do?artUrl=http://www.engadget.com/2011/01/20/university-of-washington-students-hack-kinect-to-aid-in-robotic/&category=classic&postPage=2&icid=eng_latest_art

We're sure that a time will come when we're slightly less amazed by Kinect hacks but, right now, we're still just seeing one more impressive than the last -- and we're certainly OK with that. This latest comes to us from a group of students at the University of Washington, who had the bright idea to pair Microsoft's device with some of the robotic surgery projects currently being developed by the university's BioRobotics Lab. That combo isn't quite the sentient, Kinect-enhanced robo-surgeon you may have feared, though. The students are actually using Kinect to provide force-feedback to the actual, human surgeons controlling the robotic equipment -- something that would have been a $50,000 proposition without Kinect. As you might expect, however, the Kinect-based system isn't quite ready to be used for actual surgery as it is -- while it gets the job done as a proof of concept, the students note that the sensors will need to be scaled down, and the resolution improved in order to be deemed suitable for surgical use.

[OnlineRender]

I managed to hack the motor and led on the kenict , but that's as far as I could go , got rather complex after that , but some of the stuff these guys/gals do is amazing .

[spacepainter]

http://www.next-gen.biz/features/hacking-kinect

Microsoft has made it clear that it doesn’t condone such activities but, ironically, this disparate band of intrepid hackers has demonstrated a great deal more of Kinect’s core technology than Microsoft has chosen to so far. And with Microsoft considering adding Kinect API support to XNA very soon, its power will soon be further democratised.

[Digital777]

I have read on a few blogs that they later said they left it open by choice and they thought it was good people were working with it. Probably because there is another company that will be releasing the same technology without the need for xbox/special driver things etc and probably at a lower price. MS is now making a windows/multi platform version also i think probably so it stays the leader for a while before other company's do a similar thing.

I think some of the things people are doing with the technology is quite cool, there is also some 3d scanner and motion capture things now and i think blender has some project to use this being made. It would be interesting if Andrew added support for it, maybe to make a 3d cast of something or to do a similar thing to that 3d pen so you can sculpt with your hand etc.

[philnolan3d]

I'm really hoping for an open source mocap hack that exports standard BVH files. There are already a few that are almost there and iPi Soft has one but it will not be cheap.

http://www.ipisoft.com/products.php

iPi's Kinect tests:

[OnlineRender]

I'm really hoping for an open source mocap hack that exports standard BVH files. There are already a few that are almost there and iPi Soft has one but it will not be cheap.

http://www.ipisoft.com/products.php

iPi's Kinect tests:

realising Max plug-in soon

[philnolan3d]

realising Max plug-in soon

Doesn't help me much.

[Digital777]

I'm really hoping for an open source mocap hack that exports standard BVH files.

As people are coding things for blender i guess there will be something like that built in or there will be a addon for it some time.

I am guessing there will also be competition for it soon also probably with SDK etc available. Usually when things get interest like this they don't stay unique for long, just look at iphone and ipad there is now loads of phones and tablets that look similar and work very much the same way.

[philnolan3d]

Yes if a stand alone version doesn't come out there's always blender as a last resort. Im sure it won't be long before it is working there to some extent.