This Kinect hack adds to other demonstrations of creativity we've seen since the peripheral launched over a month ago, which include vehicular, musical and titillating examples of what the tech can do outside of its first batch of games.
This Kinect hack adds to other demonstrations of creativity we've seen since the peripheral launched over a month ago, which include vehicular, musical and titillating examples of what the tech can do outside of its first batch of games.
Reader Comments (22)
Posted: Dec 16th 2010 11:21AM NaeemTHM said
It's kinda sad unofficial Kincect is far more interesting than anything Microsoft has to offer.
Posted: Dec 16th 2010 11:24AM Jack Kevorkian said
@NaeemTHM Its more sad that someone feels the need to post the exact same thing you just typed on EVERY single kinect hack thread.
Go make a list of next years games for your next Sony defense keke?
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Go make a list of next years games for your next Sony defense keke?
Posted: Dec 16th 2010 12:06PM Tachyonic Cargo said
People who say that, usually have not actually played with the Kinect. Don't get me wrong, yeah the hacks are real cool, but they are not finished products either. And some of the games like Kinectimals, Dance Central and Kinect Sports, that have launched with the Kinect are pretty sweet.
Everyone is looking at these hacks and going , "Wow, look at all the amazing things these amateurs are doing with Kinect. Why can't pro game developers do the same cool things with Kinect?" And what most people do not realize, is the game developers they are complaining about, were liking making most of the exact same hacks within weeks of getting their hands on Kinect, so they could figure out exactly what the device could do. These guys in these videos making these hacks, those are tomorrows game developers, just like today's game developers, a few years ago, were the guys in the video making hacks. Just because you graduate from university and get a job working in the field, does not mean you suddenly lose all your skill and all your curiosity.
I think a lot of people are expecting way too much, way too early from Kinect. How quickly people forget that games, real games, take time to develop. The average time for a game these days is around18 to 24 months, and those are the ones where the developer does not put too much innovation into what they are making. Making innovative games, usually takes much longer.
The fact of the matter is, developers did not get their hands on Kinect APIs and devkits until after E3 2009. Even if those developers knew exactly what they wanted to do, and how they could make it work on Kinect, they are still looking at another 18 to 24 months of development before they get completed games to reflect those ideas. I can tell you matter of fact, that most game developers upon initially getting their hands on Kinect APIs and devkits during late summer of 2009, did exactly what these hackers are doing now that they have got their hands on Kinect - spent the first few months doing nothing but hacking it and experimenting around with it to see what they could do with it. Only after they understood what they could do with it, does game development actually start - they do pretty much the same thing with any new video game hardware - spend months messing around with it, before actually getting to work on games.
So please, bother to keep some things into perspective. Give the developers the time due to them to make interesting and proper games, and I think you are going to be pleasantly surprised with how it all turns out.
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Everyone is looking at these hacks and going , "Wow, look at all the amazing things these amateurs are doing with Kinect. Why can't pro game developers do the same cool things with Kinect?" And what most people do not realize, is the game developers they are complaining about, were liking making most of the exact same hacks within weeks of getting their hands on Kinect, so they could figure out exactly what the device could do. These guys in these videos making these hacks, those are tomorrows game developers, just like today's game developers, a few years ago, were the guys in the video making hacks. Just because you graduate from university and get a job working in the field, does not mean you suddenly lose all your skill and all your curiosity.
I think a lot of people are expecting way too much, way too early from Kinect. How quickly people forget that games, real games, take time to develop. The average time for a game these days is around18 to 24 months, and those are the ones where the developer does not put too much innovation into what they are making. Making innovative games, usually takes much longer.
The fact of the matter is, developers did not get their hands on Kinect APIs and devkits until after E3 2009. Even if those developers knew exactly what they wanted to do, and how they could make it work on Kinect, they are still looking at another 18 to 24 months of development before they get completed games to reflect those ideas. I can tell you matter of fact, that most game developers upon initially getting their hands on Kinect APIs and devkits during late summer of 2009, did exactly what these hackers are doing now that they have got their hands on Kinect - spent the first few months doing nothing but hacking it and experimenting around with it to see what they could do with it. Only after they understood what they could do with it, does game development actually start - they do pretty much the same thing with any new video game hardware - spend months messing around with it, before actually getting to work on games.
So please, bother to keep some things into perspective. Give the developers the time due to them to make interesting and proper games, and I think you are going to be pleasantly surprised with how it all turns out.
Posted: Dec 16th 2010 3:01PM Mmmmz said
@Tachyonic Cargo
I think not. It's been hyped as the next big thing. Not the next big meh.
Also, the Wii has been out for 4 years now and there's not one single game that made this motion scourge worth it. Some pull it off better than others but overall, it just wasn't worth it whatsoever considering how many decent to good games were crippled or ruined by waggling.
There is absolutely no depth to the kinect. There never will be. Its hardware just isn't there to do anything truly applicable in the real world besides what it does now.
Sure, some devs will be able to cheat a little and make a few things, hopefully, that are actually interesting but it will not be worth the price of admission, in the end.
The next gen of kinect, should one come about, will probably be closer to what Microsoft was hyping for this one. Until then, it is only a fraction of the puzzle they're trying to complete.
Kids will continue to love it, though and for those who are older that love it, great for you. It's nice to enjoy one more thing than the rest of us, but still be realistic here and realize that the hardware is just as faulty as the Wii was.
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I think not. It's been hyped as the next big thing. Not the next big meh.
Also, the Wii has been out for 4 years now and there's not one single game that made this motion scourge worth it. Some pull it off better than others but overall, it just wasn't worth it whatsoever considering how many decent to good games were crippled or ruined by waggling.
There is absolutely no depth to the kinect. There never will be. Its hardware just isn't there to do anything truly applicable in the real world besides what it does now.
Sure, some devs will be able to cheat a little and make a few things, hopefully, that are actually interesting but it will not be worth the price of admission, in the end.
The next gen of kinect, should one come about, will probably be closer to what Microsoft was hyping for this one. Until then, it is only a fraction of the puzzle they're trying to complete.
Kids will continue to love it, though and for those who are older that love it, great for you. It's nice to enjoy one more thing than the rest of us, but still be realistic here and realize that the hardware is just as faulty as the Wii was.
Posted: Dec 16th 2010 4:37PM asojax said
@Mmmmz
Yes Kinect was hyped to be the next big thing, but saying the hardware isn't there? Are you just ignoring everything out there? clearly the Hardware is there out of the box, it's the software that isn't there. Can MS improve the Kinect hardware sure, hell everything can be improved with time but as it is right now the hardware is pretty amazing technology.
It will be interesting to see what the software is like when people get it to the point where you can do some of the things these "hack" videos are showing.
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Yes Kinect was hyped to be the next big thing, but saying the hardware isn't there? Are you just ignoring everything out there? clearly the Hardware is there out of the box, it's the software that isn't there. Can MS improve the Kinect hardware sure, hell everything can be improved with time but as it is right now the hardware is pretty amazing technology.
It will be interesting to see what the software is like when people get it to the point where you can do some of the things these "hack" videos are showing.
Posted: Dec 16th 2010 7:03PM Atsui said
@Mmmmz "There is absolutely no depth to the kinect. There never will be. Its hardware just isn't there to do anything truly applicable in the real world besides what it does now."
You know in the head, beliefs are processed the same way as facts. You are so lost in your bias you are ignoring things that are in front of you or are not doing the essential research to know any better. They have already done things that wouldn't make any sense with your paragraph. It can't make sense.
They have already done things with kinect with hacks that haven't even been seen in the current released games for it. Things that could make for new ways to play. Saying it can't do anything besides what you have seen it do up until now doesn't make sense because they are doing new things all the time with these hacks. It almost sounds like you are basing what the kinect can and cannot do based on the current released games. The way you talk about it makes me think you saw this video but haven't cared to try checking out the other available hacks.
Not applicable in Real life? It can be used as an inexpensive 3d scanner. They have attached it to robots where you can give it directions with gestures and soon since they finally released a driver that allows for audio recognition, hackers will start to make robots listen to both gestures and voice commands. Robots can also avoid objects with it's 3D tracking. Another cool one is the Kinect keyboard hack, which makes you able to make any surface have buttons on it.
So yeah, get out of your fantasy of you somehow knowing better and realize that there has been interesting and applicable updates to the software that makes the kinect plenty applicable in the "real world".
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You know in the head, beliefs are processed the same way as facts. You are so lost in your bias you are ignoring things that are in front of you or are not doing the essential research to know any better. They have already done things that wouldn't make any sense with your paragraph. It can't make sense.
They have already done things with kinect with hacks that haven't even been seen in the current released games for it. Things that could make for new ways to play. Saying it can't do anything besides what you have seen it do up until now doesn't make sense because they are doing new things all the time with these hacks. It almost sounds like you are basing what the kinect can and cannot do based on the current released games. The way you talk about it makes me think you saw this video but haven't cared to try checking out the other available hacks.
Not applicable in Real life? It can be used as an inexpensive 3d scanner. They have attached it to robots where you can give it directions with gestures and soon since they finally released a driver that allows for audio recognition, hackers will start to make robots listen to both gestures and voice commands. Robots can also avoid objects with it's 3D tracking. Another cool one is the Kinect keyboard hack, which makes you able to make any surface have buttons on it.
So yeah, get out of your fantasy of you somehow knowing better and realize that there has been interesting and applicable updates to the software that makes the kinect plenty applicable in the "real world".
Posted: Dec 16th 2010 11:23AM lunaticox said
Kinect head tracking on its own, so why use a wiimote?
Posted: Dec 16th 2010 11:25AM Jack Kevorkian said
@lunaticox This hack sucks. Especially after the porn one.
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Posted: Dec 16th 2010 11:49AM Tachyonic Cargo said
@lunaticox he's using a Wii-mote as a pointer to control the camera's perspective from his side; he does not have a Kinect on his side of the video chat connection. The two Kinects which are doing head tracking are on the girl's side of the video chat. But they only track her head, they will not allow him to move around to the side of her head or the back of her head, from his perspective on his side of the chat.
Basically, he is using the Wii-mote in much the same manner as you would use dual analog sticks in a FPS, so that he can move around her image on his side of the video chat. He could have used a standard controller to do the exact same thing, or even a keyboard and mouse. But I guess he just wanted to seem cooler in his YouTube video by using a Wii-mote.
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Basically, he is using the Wii-mote in much the same manner as you would use dual analog sticks in a FPS, so that he can move around her image on his side of the video chat. He could have used a standard controller to do the exact same thing, or even a keyboard and mouse. But I guess he just wanted to seem cooler in his YouTube video by using a Wii-mote.
Posted: Dec 16th 2010 12:18PM Indefinite Implosion said
It's a pity about the artifacting where the two cameras overlap :\
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Posted: Dec 16th 2010 11:37AM Stevetrop Man of Mystery said
I never imagined that the kinect would be so dynamic with the hacks we seen done to it. It mean all these things can benefit game development. I mean arm waving and waggling can only be fun but for so long. These guys and gals working on these hacks show us the real potential of the kinect.
Posted: Dec 16th 2010 2:10PM Raffi256 said
@Stevetrop Man of Mystery
The stuff the games are doing are with full-body skeletal tracking is way more advanced than any of the community projects so far. Most of them do pretty naive methods of tracking and these 3D point cloud demos you practically get for free from the hardware. Just because the launch games are mostly family-friendly games that are playable by children doesn't mean there isn't awesome tech underneath.
Also, Your Shape does this, builds a 3D projection of the player and puts them in a virtual environment.
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The stuff the games are doing are with full-body skeletal tracking is way more advanced than any of the community projects so far. Most of them do pretty naive methods of tracking and these 3D point cloud demos you practically get for free from the hardware. Just because the launch games are mostly family-friendly games that are playable by children doesn't mean there isn't awesome tech underneath.
Also, Your Shape does this, builds a 3D projection of the player and puts them in a virtual environment.
Posted: Dec 16th 2010 11:57AM leobebes said
Why does everyone think that the current Kinect games game development is static? Microsoft released games that would have mass market appeal and were built with longevity in mind. Not longevity like a Call of Duty game that you can play for years to come via mulitplayer, but longevity in playing Kinectmals for a couple hours at a time, or unlocking all the features of Dance Central while maintaining mass appeal. I am pretty sure most of the dev kits for the commercial Kinect in the state that it is now were probably around for less than 2 years, there is no way that a multimillion dollar corporation like Ubisoft or even Microsoft game studios would put out games with hacks like you have seen which would wear out their appeal in 10 minutes, and there is now way that they would have a full game ready that uses these hacks and be ready for launch.
Posted: Dec 16th 2010 12:35PM WiNGSPANTT from TopTierTacticsco said
I waited the entire video, and she didn't ask for Obi-wan's help, not even once.
Posted: Dec 16th 2010 1:44PM Adhesive said
it seems the community is unlocking the real potential of kinnect
Posted: Dec 16th 2010 4:10PM antv said
it's cool to see such interesting things done with kinect hardware, but every time i see one of these, it makes me think of what would be possible, had kinect not been made with the lowest quality parts afforded to the tech. I'm sure this research, coupled with prime sense's top of the line equipment, would be something truly incredible.
