Kinect Hacks: Optical camouflage turns you into the Predator
by David Hinkle 
on Dec 3rd 2010 6:10PM
35
Reader Comments (35)
Posted: Dec 3rd 2010 6:16PM Stevetrop Man of Mystery said
I'm care more about the hacks I see on kinect each day more so than the games of the system itself.
I can only imagine what we will see a year from now.
I can only imagine what we will see a year from now.
Posted: Dec 3rd 2010 6:18PM BlackedOut said
It only does everything.
...What? It does...
...What? It does...
Posted: Dec 3rd 2010 7:16PM The Joy of Cooking DeMat said
@BlackedOut
Only that this time, it actually does.
Reply
Only that this time, it actually does.
Posted: Dec 3rd 2010 6:19PM Robborboy said
Okay, this is pretty neat.
Posted: Dec 3rd 2010 6:30PM profeteer said
I always knew this thing would be more useful in the hands of hackers than anything MS put out.
Posted: Dec 3rd 2010 6:41PM BlackedOut said
One corporation vs. the World?
Protip: The World always wins.
Reply
Protip: The World always wins.
Posted: Dec 3rd 2010 7:03PM Flapjackal said
@profeteer I keep reading comments like this about these Kinect "hacks". How is this useful? He's camouflaged. And...? How is this better than an actual game designed for the Kinect? Seriously.
Reply
Posted: Dec 4th 2010 11:28AM Punchdrunkbrian said
@Flapjackal You're completely missing the point. It's not about how useful it is, it's about the possibilities it presents. This is just a guy with his laptop, but imagine what a full team of developers will be able to do with this technology.
Reply
Posted: Dec 3rd 2010 6:32PM PreGHz said
Ha, is that OSX? Talk about Reality Distortion Field!
Posted: Dec 3rd 2010 6:34PM Invigilator said
Now THIS is awesome.
I'm trying to think of a way it could be used in a game, but haven't thought of one yet.
I'm trying to think of a way it could be used in a game, but haven't thought of one yet.
Posted: Dec 3rd 2010 6:41PM InDurdenWeTrust said
These kinect hacks are really starting to impress me! I wonder what made him think that song would be appropriate?
Posted: Dec 3rd 2010 6:53PM N Retrograde said
@InDurdenWeTrust
He probably works at Polyphony Digital.
Reply
He probably works at Polyphony Digital.
Posted: Dec 3rd 2010 6:45PM fid said
if the government wasn't watching this guy before, they are now, as best they can anyway. :p
Posted: Dec 3rd 2010 7:10PM DarknessBear said
It's cool. But anywhere in the video does he pick up something turn off the light or move an item? It could just take a picture of your background and a glass filter over your body.
Posted: Dec 3rd 2010 7:33PM Tephlon said
Why the unnecessarily long video? It takes him 30 seconds just to walk into the frame and then he spends 6 minutes doing basically the same thing?
This is cool, but I kept waiting for something more to happen. This guy needs to shorten this to a minute or less. That's all the time he needs to get his point across.
This is cool, but I kept waiting for something more to happen. This guy needs to shorten this to a minute or less. That's all the time he needs to get his point across.
Posted: Dec 3rd 2010 7:36PM WiredKnight said
We're seeing his TV/Monitor, right? All it's doing is detecting his silhouette and distorting/filtering it along with whatever is in the background. It's a neat effect, and does *look* like optical camouflage, but um, hello? everyone else in the room would be able to see him.
Posted: Dec 3rd 2010 9:13PM maveric101 said
@WiredKnight
i don't think people think he's invisible in his room, but yeah, this isn't very impressive. all it does is detect where he is and fill in that space with a distorted picture it took before he walked into its view. because of that, if he moved the kinect at all while in the frame, the effect would break.
Reply
i don't think people think he's invisible in his room, but yeah, this isn't very impressive. all it does is detect where he is and fill in that space with a distorted picture it took before he walked into its view. because of that, if he moved the kinect at all while in the frame, the effect would break.
Posted: Dec 3rd 2010 7:42PM Lerkero said
Why are the hacks for Kinect more interesting than all the games? This must be solved soon.
Posted: Dec 3rd 2010 8:00PM Drakkenfyre said
He has the device take a picture of the background, then he tells it to subtract himself from the image. He tracks his body heat, and where he is, it "deletes" him from the picture. The background you see thru him is the image as it saw it before he stepped into frame. The distortion is because the background is 2D to the device, and his body heat image is 3D.
This same thing has been done with computers before, but it's still impressive with a console device.
This same thing has been done with computers before, but it's still impressive with a console device.
Posted: Dec 3rd 2010 8:39PM TJF said
@Drakkenfyre Body heat? It can't detect body heat.
How about it detects distance wise, which is something the Kinect can actually do.
The way I see it it has a picture of the background, and it distorts the background image when anything in an applicable distance is detected.
Much simpler, and actually possible for the Kinect.
Reply
How about it detects distance wise, which is something the Kinect can actually do.
The way I see it it has a picture of the background, and it distorts the background image when anything in an applicable distance is detected.
Much simpler, and actually possible for the Kinect.
Posted: Dec 3rd 2010 8:44PM Drakkenfyre said
It detects IR light. IR light is given off as body heat. Yes, it can see body heat. It doesn't do thermal imaging like a thermal camera will, but it still can see your body heat as IR.
It's performing a flood-fill operation. Wherever it sees the person, it fills in their image with the background. You can do this with photoshop. Select flood-fill, choose the fill as a pattern, and select a texture. Select the texture as a copy of the image itself. Cut out a piece of the image, then do flood-fill on the image. It will be a perfect copy. Except in this case, the 3D of his image is providing the distortion.
Remember, this is a Kinect hooked up to a pc. He isn't just going on base functionality. The output is being altered.
Reply
It's performing a flood-fill operation. Wherever it sees the person, it fills in their image with the background. You can do this with photoshop. Select flood-fill, choose the fill as a pattern, and select a texture. Select the texture as a copy of the image itself. Cut out a piece of the image, then do flood-fill on the image. It will be a perfect copy. Except in this case, the 3D of his image is providing the distortion.
Remember, this is a Kinect hooked up to a pc. He isn't just going on base functionality. The output is being altered.
Posted: Dec 4th 2010 12:52AM Raffi256 said
@Drakkenfyre
No it certainly does not pick up body heat. Heat is in the far-infared, the sensor only picks up very near-infared. It has a narrow-band filter that only sees light at around 820 nm, which is what its projector puts out. Everything else is filtered out.
Its just taking input from the depth sensor, anything that is behind him gets filtered out.
Reply
No it certainly does not pick up body heat. Heat is in the far-infared, the sensor only picks up very near-infared. It has a narrow-band filter that only sees light at around 820 nm, which is what its projector puts out. Everything else is filtered out.
Its just taking input from the depth sensor, anything that is behind him gets filtered out.
Posted: Dec 3rd 2010 9:18PM QuePasa87 said
I would buy Kinect if it actually gave you active camo like that.
Posted: Dec 4th 2010 12:08AM Flapjackal said
@Drunken Irish Sniper Believe it or not, this already exists.
Posted: Dec 4th 2010 2:35AM KinseySS said
Holy shit it's the Predator!!!
Posted: Dec 4th 2010 3:40AM Fillem said
Kudos for snazzy jazz.
Posted: Dec 4th 2010 4:15AM Sam Fisher said
Well atleast we have something against the robots when they take over, if they have kinect for its sensors then we can be invisible, the resistance has a chance :D
On another note, they should totally make a predator the game, where your the predator and your stalking marines and silently killing them.
On another note, they should totally make a predator the game, where your the predator and your stalking marines and silently killing them.
Posted: Dec 4th 2010 6:16AM DerickDBrown said
He looks like he keeps doing the best cha cha ever because of the wavy-ness of the texture on him.
Posted: Dec 4th 2010 6:56AM Sam Fisher said
@fudsa89 Mate, I think you got the wrong site, this ain't IGN.
Posted: Dec 4th 2010 9:25AM Redd75 said
Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't this just a green-screen type of effect? The 'room' that he appears to be in is just a photo.
Posted: Dec 4th 2010 12:46PM Edenane said
You know, this is something that came with Eyetoy Play. The exact same.
It simply took a picture with the player not in the frame, then if the camera detected movement on the camera it distorted that area. So almost the same as this.
But don't forget the Eyetoy!
It simply took a picture with the player not in the frame, then if the camera detected movement on the camera it distorted that area. So almost the same as this.
But don't forget the Eyetoy!
Posted: Dec 4th 2010 2:04PM Kyizen said
@Guts
So like everything else for Kinect?
So like everything else for Kinect?
Posted: Dec 5th 2010 4:23PM Akashic said
If you move the camera, it won't work right?
