Feel free to bookmark this page; it'll be updated regularly as we cover more Kinect hacks. It's listed in reverse-chronological order, so the newest items will appear at the top. Enjoy.
Last Updated: March 5, 2011
Mar 3, 2011: Over the course of about two weeks, Nisha Kurani, John Horstman, and their fellow students in Carnegie Mellon's Special Topics in Interactive Art & Computational Design course hacked Microsoft Kinect cameras. Not for fun, mind you, but for class credit.
Mar 2, 2011: Life would be better with flashy comic book sound effects. At least, that’s what one group of students thinks. Four students at Carnegie Mellon University worked together to create “Comic Kinect,” a Kinect hack that adds comic book-esque sound effects to ordinary contact. The software tracks users’ skeletons, and then adds graphics where they contact each other to simulate the look of a fight.
Mar 1, 2011: A Kinect-powered robot could soon be helping locate earthquake victims, thanks to the engineering ingenuity of a group of U.K. students. The rescue-robot, developed at the University of Warwick by the geeky Warwick Mobile Robotics (WMR) team, could help significantly reduce the costs involved in earthquake rescue attempts.
Feb 28, 2011: There have been plenty of cool Kinect hacks since Microsoft released the motion-sensitive device, so it's no surprise that the hacks are coming thick and fast, like this really cool 3D printout puzzle piece of yourself.
Feb 25, 2011: Despite Microsoft's initial disapproval of amateur hackers tampering with the Kinect software and developing custom drivers, the developers behind indie game OctoDad have managed to hack their quirky physics-based puzzle game to allow full motion control; given that OctoDad is all about acting like an uncoordinated octopus strapped inside a human suit, we thought it might be fun to showcase the game in action. Despite blizzard conditions in Illinois the development team at DePaul University were kind enough to record a short video for us of their hack in action.
Feb 17, 2011: Using openFrameworks and an Armadillo 500 FX Android tablet, HirotakaSter got the table to show the video feed from the Kinect’s camera. While this setup isn’t doing much more than display video at the moment, we’re pretty excited at the prospect of having a portable Android/Kinect system for hacks while on the run.
Feb 3, 2011: Thanks to a new Kinect hack you too can now re-enact scenes from Dragonball Z--all from the comfort of your very own home. Dubbed the Kinect-Kamehameha, the new hack makes use of the Kinect's motion tracking abilities, enabling you to get your Super Saiyan on in style - complete with oversized hair and energy balls.
Feb 2, 2011: Dan Nixon and Don Jones recently shot a video for the band Echo Lake, featuring its song Young Silence. The video itself it pretty cool, and seems to fit the song's almost dream-like sound well. But the most impressive part? It was filmed using a Microsoft Kinect.
Jan 27, 2011: We follow the latest emerging trends in tech here at PCWorld, so we've been hooked on the Microsoft Kinect hacking scene. We decided to try some projects for ourselves and show you how easy it is to get started with Kinect hacks.
Jan 24, 2011: What can you hack a Kinect to do? What can't you hack a Kinect to do? Control a robot? Check. Model the human skeleton? Check. Now MIT Media Lab researchers used a Kinect to capture holographic video, which they then were able to stream over the Internet.
Jan 17, 2011: This humanoid robot has been programmed to copy your every move via the Kinect. It does this by using the Kinect (connected to a PC) to map the human body; it then sends that data to Japanese robot Website V-Sido. Thanks to the Kinect and V-Sido, the robot-to-human coordination is pretty flawless.
Jan 11, 2011: So, you want to play some Call Of Duty on your PC? You could do that the old fashioned way, or you could spice things up a little by hooking your PC up to Microsoft's Kinect and Nintendo's Wii Remote for some added FPS awesomeness, One avid gamer has done just that, sharing the impressive results on YouTube for all to see.
Jan 3, 2011: Another day, another Kinect hack. The Microsoft motion-control camera is fast becoming the go-to Augmented Reality accessory for the geek set. This week’s demo has a decidedly medical bent; the magic mirror project lets you see a real time view of "your" skeleton like a real-time x-ray.
Dec 31, 2011: Here's a Kinect hack via OpenNI (an open source framework tool for Kinect) constructed by Evan Suma, a researcher at the University of Southern California and his team. It's called FAAST (Flexible Action and Articulated Skeleton Toolkit), and it allows for basic commands and movement to be done via body motion and sound in the game.
Dec 9, 2010: I’ve wanted a Minority Report-esque way to control my computer for years, especially since a lot of my astronomy image-processing workflow involves countless mouse clicks and there's no way to automate the process. But I shouldn’t have to wait much longer, thanks to a team at MIT that has created a hand-detection system out of Microsoft’s Kinect camera. By detecting where your palms and fingers are, the Kinect lets you scroll through images, select them, and even enlarge them at will, using one or both hands. No clumsy gloves required!
Nov 29, 2010: Kinect hacking is taking off at blinding speed. Microsoft's Kinect motion controller for XBox 360 is less than a month old, and it’s been barely two weeks since Adafruit announced a winner in their Open Kinect competition. Since the, Microsoft has tacitly endorsed opening up the Kinect as a platform, and it seems like there’s a new Kinect hack every couple of hours. It can be tough to keep up with a phenomenon that’s gone from nothing to a full blown scene in less than a month, so as a service to you we’re rounding up GeekTech’s favorite Kinect hacks.
Nov 8, 2010: Kinect, Microsoft's motion gaming accessory has been hacked--mere .
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