Programming The Kinect To Work With Android

August 8, 2011 by Jeremy Cook 7 Comments

The Kinect has been hacked for many purposes, but this Android implementation tutorial is the first we’ve heard of it being used on a mobile phone platform. Although not a finished product at this point, [Raymond’s] tutorial is a good starting point for those wanting to experiment with fusing these two technologies.

The Kinect programming for this tutorial has been done with the Tegra Ventana development kit for Android 3.0. An Ubuntu-Linux installation is used, but this technique should be portable to any Linux system according to the author.

The procedure given is pretty straightforward, and the author even provides an example of the results in a video after the break. It’s interesting to note that, when connected, the Kinect is seen as two devices, “Xbox NUI Camera” and “Xbox NUI audio”. We look forward to new hacks to come out for this device, possibly using this set of tools. Continue reading “Programming The Kinect To Work With Android” →

Did Microsoft Steal The Kinect?

July 14, 2011 by Brian Benchoff 86 Comments

In 2009, while Microsoft was busy designing and marketing what would become the Kinect, [Carlos Anzola], an inventor, tinkerer, and self-ascribed geek from Bogotá, Colombia, had been working for years on a nearly identical gesture interface for the PC. His creation, the Human interface Electronic Device, or HiE-D – pronounced ‘Heidi’ – was capable of gesture recognition years before Microsoft would release the Kinect.

After developing his gesture recognition device in 2007, Microsoft showed interest in [Carlos]’ device – going so far as to request a prototype. Microsoft suggested that he should apply for a patent on his technology. [Carlos] did just that, sending in patent applications to both the United States Patent and Trademark Office and the World Intellectual Property Organization a mere two days before the announcement of Project Natal and a full seven months before Microsoft applied for their Kinect patent.

Since the release of the Kinect, [Carlos] has been showing the HiE-D around Bogotá and has put a few videos of his technology up on Youtube, one of which can be seen below. You can also check out his Youtube channel for some great demos.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f5jfOJ3TwyI&w=470]

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Play Dress Up With Kinect

July 7, 2011 by Mike Nathan 20 Comments

kinect_virtual_dressing_room

While we have seen Kinect-based virtual dressing rooms before, the team at Arbuzz is taking a slightly different approach (Translation) to the digital dress up game. Rather than using flat images of clothes superimposed on the subject’s body, their solution uses full 3D models of the clothing to achieve the desired effect. This method allows them to create a more true to life experience, where the clothing follows the subject around, flowing naturally with the user’s movements.

Like many other Kinect hacks, they use openNI and NITE to obtain skeletal data from the sensor. The application itself was written in C# with Microsoft’s XNA game development tools, and uses a special physics engine to render the simulated cloth in a realistic fashion

[Lukasz] says that the system is still in its infancy, and will require plenty of work before they are completely happy with the results. From where we’re sitting, the demo video embedded below is pretty neat, even if it is a bit rough around the edges. We were particularly pleased to see the Xbox’s native Kinect interface put to work in a DIY project, and we are quite interested to see how things look once they put the final touches on it.

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Driving Game Steering Wheel Controller Without The Wheel

July 6, 2011 by Mike Szczys 18 Comments

For some reason this project makes us think of the Light Cycles in Tron. You know, the bike forms around the rider after they grab onto the wand that makes up its controls? Certainly you’re not going to see a car form out of thin air, but this driving controller let you grab onto nothing to control a racing game.

You can see that it uses a Kinect to map the body of the player and convert your movements into motion control. The demo video embedded below the fold shows the calibration step, followed by the available control options. Pushing the steering wheel forward turns on the nitrous, leaning forward or back accelerates and brakes, and a few arm signals let you navigate the game menus.

This works by mapping gestures to keystrokes. [Rajarshi Roy] tells us that there’s a very raw code package available in their repository but the plan is to clean it up this weekend. They will also work on a Wiki, documentation, and a tutorial on teaching the software new gestures.

We just don’t know what we like better, seeing the kinect extended as a gaming controller like this one, or using it in robotics like that quadcopter.

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Kinect-controlled Quadrotor

July 5, 2011 by Mike Nathan 10 Comments

kinect_quadrotor_control

The team over at the Flying Machine Arena has been busy combining two of our favorite toys – quadrotors and Kinect.

Like many other hacks, they are using Kinect to monitor their joint positions, mapping a handful of actions to the operator’s movements. Once the quadrotor is aloft, it can be directed around the room using the operator’s right hand. The gesture recognition system responds almost instantly, guiding the vehicle in all directions with ease. When the user’s left hand is raised, the quadrotor does a mid-air flip and awaits its next command, while a quick clap of the hands brings the machine to rest on the ground.

For the protection of anyone testing out the system, overhead motion tracking cameras are used to keep track of the Kinect’s position, creating an invisible midair barrier through which the quadrotor is not allowed to pass.

If you have a minute, check out the video below – controlling quadrotors looks way more fun than any Kinect game we’ve come across.

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Sandbox Game In A Sandbox

July 3, 2011 by Brian Benchoff 21 Comments

The team at Monobanda have been working on a sandbox game called Mimicry that uses a Kinect to read the terrain of a sandbox.

From the teaser video and press release, the eventual goal appears to be controlling both a character in the game and the environment simultaneously. By reading the terrain of the sandbox with a Kinect, the team was able to import that into the game world. The team says the game world is inhabited by tiny virtual characters that, “roll around, jump and glide through the Mimicry world.” Anyone playing Mimicry can create obstacles for these little creatures or build them a race track. The Monobandia team says the point of this game is, “to create your own games.” With a fully editable world and its ‘rolling ball’ inhabitants, we can’t wait to make our own custom Beyblade arena.

Since the release of the Kinect SDK a few weeks ago, we’ve been seeing some really amazing projects that should have been day-1 demos from Microsoft. We’ve been impressed with the projects we’ve seen so far, and can’t wait to see what others come up with next. If you have a neat build, be sure to send it into the tip line.

Check out a video testing the game mechanics after the break.

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Synapse Turns Your Kinect Into A Dubstep Theremin

June 23, 2011 by Mike Nathan 12 Comments

kinect_dubstep_theremin

[Ryan Challinor] is part of a group constructing a display for this year’s Burning Man festival that includes the Kinect, Ableton Live, and Quartz Composer. As the programming guru of the project, he was tasked with creating a method for his partners to utilize all three products via an easy to use interface.

His application is called Synapse and was inspired by videos he saw online of people controlling individual Dubstep beats or sound effects with the Kinect. Synapse allows you to map multiple effects to each limb, sending joint positions, hit events, and image depth data to both Ableton and Quartz Composer via OSC. The user interface looks fairly easy to work with, enabling musicians and artists to create awesome audio/visual displays using their bodies as instruments, in a very short period of time.

Check out the pair of videos below to see a brief walkthrough of the software interface as well as a quick video demonstration of what Synapse is capable of.

[via KinectHacks]

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