When Microsoft released the Kinect for the Xbox 360 I was a little skeptical of its use and practicality. The general idea of using yourself as a controller for a video game just seems a little far-fetched to me, not to mention the negative press going on about Microsoft using the Kinect scan the surroundings in your room as a way to target advertising.
As time went on and that Kinect became more popular I began to see some cool things done with it, still nothing that would sway me into actually buying a 360 let alone a Kinect.
Flash forward to present day, and I came across this video on YouTube recorded by Kevin Connolly for the lockergnome channel which blew my mind away and opened me up to the possibilities that the Kinect could bring. Using Microsoft’s source distribution kit (SDK) Kevin was able to create an interface for Microsoft Windows that allows you to use gestures to navigate around your computer. While the interface is still in the very early stages quite buggy at this point, it is still some of the coolest community driven Microsoft centric stuff I have seen in the past few years. I do not currently own a Kinect so I couldn’t test it personally but based on the video which I’ve embedded below, it looks promising and shows a lot of potential.
In the video, Kevin talks about getting his inspiration for this idea from the movie the Minority Report which featured a similar computer set up using gestures to control and navigate the computer. Because of this movie being an inspiration towards creating this interface, some of the gestures incorporated into the interface are the same as the ones used in the movie.
Keep in mind when you watch the video that this is still as I said in the very early stages of development, some of the gestures he attempts to use do not work the way he planned or at all. The project however is open source so if you’re good with programming, particularly .NET programming then you may want to look at the source code and see if you can help Kevin out. I myself am no programmer, so other than constructive criticism I can’t exactly provide direct help on this project, as much as I would like to.
The video truly is amazing what some of the things that he’s accomplished, looking forward a very lightly see the interface becoming an extremely popular Windows add-on for Microsoft Xbox 360 and Kinect owners.
Still, this makes me wonder here is somebody who clearly does not work for Microsoft, but is passionate enough about their products to try to incorporate the device made by Microsoft to interface with another Microsoft product. Question is why Microsoft hasn’t done this already itself. Being that it owns both the hardware and the software that the hardware is trying to interface with it will be a lot easier for a Microsoft developer to incorporate this kind of technology into Windows.
Watch the video embedded below let me know what you think and if you like what you see then be sure to let Kevin know or better yet help with the programming if you’re able.
Tags: future, hack, instructions, Kinect, lockergnome, Microsoft, minority report, motion, motion tracking, PC, SDK, technology, tracking, UI, Windows, Xbox, Xbox 360
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