Open source Kinect drivers for PC arrive, $3,000 bounty won

[Guest]

miska_man
are you suggesting microsoft are not capable of making a 'driver' for their own device on their own operating system ? :O lol

 

[spyx]

Lol this is great i heard microsoft had said that this thing was tamper proof and look at this, this stry has been on the web for about 3 days now i think lucky guy and smart .....sigh......i wish i could do stuff like this

 

[Richy2k9]

hello ...

sorry didn't read the comments .. but i've read that Kinnect would come to the PC, MS wants this, so i see no point in this hack, except as a challenge & good if rewarded.

cheers!

 

[Darth Shiv]

Vrmithrax said:

Johny47 said:
I don't know why kinect isn't on PC aswell as 360 because most of the 360's so called 'exclusives'(haha yeah right =/) are also on PC so I think it would be a good idea, that's IF PC gamers would get it on it.

How many people do you know that have a PC setup with huge screens and at least 6' of open space in front of the desk to use something like the Kinect? (I know, this is probably a loaded question, since the readers of Techspot probably have an unusually high ratio of familiarity with those types of setups).

Me! HTPC here...

Vrmithrax said:
But, the reason Kinect (in its current iteration) isn't on the PC is that it's an economic dead-end. The Kinect is specifically designed for an application that does not mesh well with traditional PC setups. Fact is, the PC customer base that could actually use the current Kinect product is minuscule compared to the Xbox customer base. Even with an HTPC setup (which would technically be the best suited to work with a Kinect), odds are that the HTPC is very graphically underpowered for things like games.

$200 vid card and you've got more power than a 360 and can display at 1080p. True about the market for it but why don't they release official drivers and let the market decide? It could really boost the Kinect's adoption and even create this PC market.

 

[Vrmithrax]

Darth Shiv said:

Me! HTPC here...

Same here, but as I said, us Techspot readers are probably ahead of the tech curve compared to the average consumer, so it's sort of a loaded question. I've got the big screen, and plenty of room to use a Kinect.

$200 vid card and you've got more power than a 360 and can display at 1080p. True about the market for it but why don't they release official drivers and let the market decide? It could really boost the Kinect's adoption and even create this PC market.

I pondered this also, but in many cases an HTPC is built in a compact case that won't allow a decent GPU to be added. And, let's be brutally honest here. Microsoft would much rather you spend that $200 buying an Xbox than put it into the pockets of some PC graphics card maker. They'll do what they can to milk as much profit out of Kinect as possible, before branching out other applications. It's the way of the world in consumer electronics, unfortunately.

I'd love to see some official drivers drop out of the Microsoft camp as well, but I honestly think they'll keep them close to the vest until they have no choice. Which is why these hackers are so great: they push companies out of their comfort zones and often force technologies to be officially released far sooner than some profit-minded companies intended, just for damage control.

 

[mattfrompa]

one word, algorithms...

 

[Guest]

Microsoft seems glad that finally see such a free publicity from it's not so high tech new toy gadget.

 

[gwailo247]

You people really need to understand something. These people haven't hacked Kinect, and they're not going to. They'll never be able to make Kinect work on PC like it does on 360, because Kinect is a combination of the software in the machine, and the CPU in the 360. You have to have both. You're not going to see a situation where the system can be controlled on a PC like it can on the 360. You certainly won't be able to play games, because Microsoft won't allow it.

All they're doing here is capturing images from the cameras by writing some drivers. But you can't interact with it in the way it was designed.

I suspect Microsoft will include Kinect features in Windows 8 and future operating systems, and make it available at some point in the future.

Took 2 days for this quote to become wrong. LMAO.

 

[Micro Watt]

Glad to see that there are people who actually support hacking and opensource software. These people should keep it up. This is a great incentive for people to demonstrate their capabilities, no matter how destructive it may seem to firms. Keep it up...

 

[jsquirre]

check this out.
http://www.crunchgear.com/2010/11/14/more-kinect-craziness-mind-blowing-3d-video-effect/
in theory this could create a cheap 3d scanner for many applications. 3d rendering crime scenes or crash camera for dangerous intersections ect

 

[Guest]

While there is meaning in being the first, by having the pc users hack the device first they are taking a ton of the development cost out of it for PC. There are software packages already out for using the Sony Camera's as a motion capture system. Kinect is already on their list. ipisoft.com. I hope to use the Kinect as a sculpting method of 3d modeling with Maya and Lightwave.