Kinect Message Board older than one year ago

#gijoevsbarcelona I've always wanted to have my own action figure. And had I been in Barcelona earlier this year, I could have had the chance, thanks to a 3D printer and a network of Kinect cameras. More »

#deals Hey, you buying a Kinect this week? Maybe do so at GameStop, because the video game megastore is giving away a freebie if you pick one up soon. Now, before you beat feet to your local GameStop, that game is Body and Brain Connection. More »

#putyourhandsintheair A very annoying alarm is ringing. It won't stop. Not unless you stand in the box, in front of the Microsoft Kinect, and raise your arms. More »

#ruhroh Remember the Times Square launch event for Kinect last fall? It took some begging, pleading, and cold hard cash just to happen, when the cops made the last-minute discovery a full blown concert didn't have the requisite permits. The promoter who made all the bad stuff go away says Microsoft owes him $63,000 for it. More »

#watchthis Self-described hacker Tom Zickel serves up the latest Kinect mod - this time manipulating the flight of an AR Drone (this one a Parrot Quadricopter) using hand gestures recognized by Kinect. More »

Kinect isn't making you feel enough like an omniscient being? Perhaps you'd prefer controlling actual, physical things with your movements, rather than a virtual representation? Boy does Tom Zickel have a Kinect hack for you!

Ordinarily, a mainstream news report on how "hackers have repurposed the Kinect to allow people to control computers and the digital world" would have us bracing to put out the fire -- but this is PBS we're talking about. Set your DVR to tape tonight's "Need to Know" and go enjoy your Friday night!

#xbox360 High end retailer Nordstrom is using Microsoft's hands-free Kinect controller for Xbox 360 in its window displays to give the fashion conscious a chance to play with light. More »

#minorityreplyall Last week, Google thought it'd be funny to have an April Fool's gag based on Kinect powering, of all things, Gmail. Well, turns out you can actually do that. More »

If you must suffer an unforeseen failure in confidentiality on any day of the year, what better day than April 1st? It's the one time when the internet can muster some skepticism, even while presented with purportedly leaked footage of a high-profile sequel. Doubt over the authenticity of an "internal" pitch video of Forza Motorsport 4 might have obscured the news, had Microsoft not pulled it from Youtube.

According to a Microsoft statement received and published by several gaming news sites, the video "was not intended for public distribution and may not accurately reflect features and functionality that ship in Forza Motorsport 4." The company's concern may lie in promising features that have yet to be finalized, such as 16-player online races, the contribution of over 80 automobile manufacturers and the introduction of social car clubs.

(One promoted feature we can rule out with ease, however, is the career mode that has you "literally" traveling the globe. Forza 4 isn't likely to include a bundle of plane tickets -- if it did, you'd have a cheap opportunity to swing by this year's semantics nazi convention.)

Considering the glossy, flattering nature of the video, and the presence of already-announced additions like Kinect head tracking, it's possible that April Fools' Day marked the start of a viral marketing campaign for Forza 4. Let's see how long this version of the video stays up, and whether Microsoft comes knocking on our door. Not literally.

#rumor Realizing it is April Fool's, if this video is a fake, someone went to a lot of trouble to create something that delivers no punchline. Here is a solid three minutes jampacked with in-game footage of Forza 4, touting a lot of features we'd scented from a marketing survey that went out last week. More »

#questionableinnovation Imagine a world in which sending an e-mail is as simple as standing in front of an Xbox 360 Kinect and making a fool of one's self. More »

#peripheralsasart Microsoft's Kinect is normally spoken of in terms of its practical applications. Let's take a break from that, and use its "thousand points of light" as the basis for a beautiful photographic exhibit. More »

Listen, Child of Eden -- you already look amazing. But promising to give us psychedelic, glowing hands? That seems too good to be true.

#research Microsoft's research team in Cambridge has published a paper outlining several ways the speed and accuracy of Kinect can be improved. Lucky Kinect is also made by Microsoft! More »

#video Sure, Kinect can be used for good - stuff like possibly helping the blind. But it also can be used for evil. More »

#missedkinnections "That's it. I am never playing a Kinect game again." More »

Though this particular Kinect hack is titled "Living Brushes," we prefer the name "Paint Wizard," for reasons you'll likely only comprehend after watching the video below. We've seen the device used for artistic purposes before, but this program from Matt Lockyer absolutely takes the tempera cake.

Some Kinect Hacks seems to have some practical applications to us tech-savvy folks who don't have access to our own mad scientist laboratories. This ain't one of them: Researchers at the Dundalk Institute of Technology have hooked a Kinect up to a virtual apartment, as seen in the video below.

1n0ut, an artist collective specializing in multimedia performance-based art, has created a Kinect hack both beautiful and inspiring to behold. Titled "Versus," it sees a real-life dancer giving lessons to a digital model. Just imagine: Here's a future where we can teach our computers how to Dougie.

Microsoft is giving primary school kids in South Africa a chance at a real hands-off education. Classrooms at Lakeside Park Primary, in the Vryheid, KwaZulu-Natal district (yes, it's a Natal project) are being equipped with Kinect cameras and Xbox 360s as part of a Microsoft initiative, in order to encourage English use in the classroom.

"Shy learners, who take months to speak up in class in their mother tongue - let alone in English, were already shouting out to classmates to 'jump' and 'duck' with no inhibition," Lakeside Park Primary Deputy Principal Karen Kirsten explained. According to XboxGaming, the Kinect and its English-language games are used to reduce the affective filter involved in learning and speaking English, so it can be better used as the teaching language in the classroom.

As a bonus, it teaches valuable mime skills.

A Japanese firm has used Microsoft's Kinect peripheral to create a promotional display for the upcoming Ghost in the Shell: S.A.C. Solid State Society. The exhibit features images projected on two different walls, and then uses the Kinect to track player movements, allowing visitors to control one of the mechs featured in the movie.

The system itself is actually PC-based, however, so it's not official Xbox software. If you happen to be in Tokyo and want to see it, the promotional exhibit is on display in the Shibuya Parco shopping complex until the middle of April.

#rumor We've known that Forza Motorsport 4, when it releases later this year, will support Kinect as a control method. A marketing survey now hints at what some of those features might be, such as head tracking to move the game's camera, and a casual mode that allows players to steer with their hands, similar to last year's Joy Ride. More »

#ghostintheshell Sci-fi anime flick Ghost in the Shell: S.A.C. Solid State Society is getting a 3D theatrical outing this month in Japan. The flick was originally released in 2006, and if you missed it the first time around, it's worth checking out. Know what else is worth checking out? More »

They said it couldn't be done, but Shantanu Goel has seemingly done it: married an Xbox 360 and PS3 together through some good, old-fashioned Kinect hackery. In the video past the break, you can see the first small steps for man that is Killzone 3 being played with Kinect. Yes, that is a sentence we never thought we'd have to write.

It's still a bit rough around the edges (a self-professed "pre-Alpha" build of the software), but the progress that Goel claims to have made is quite impressive to behold. It could be faked, but all signs point to this being a legitimate, working Kinect hack, using Kinect PC drivers and software that allows the PS3 to use PC controllers. Goel's posted a walkthrough online for all to see.

YouTube user shantzg001 has successfully modded his Kinect camera to work with the PlayStation 3, creating a sense of unity between console manufactures Sony and Microsoft...

#pc Microsoft probably has many ideas on what constitutes the future of gaming on the PC. It's too big a company not to. But this particular one is so horrible you may not want to even see it. More »

#kinect This genie of Kinect modification is never going back in the bottle. Now a modder has figured out a way to get the Microsoft device to work with a PlayStation 3. More »

#video Some folks, including the creator, describe this Kinect mod in Hulk-smash terms. It does tint the screen (and the skin of the players) green. But towering above puny buildings and smashing them into rubble, that sounds more like Rampage, to me. Either way, let's get this one into production, stat. More »

Go ahead, let the stress out. It's Friday, after all. Time to Hulk out and smash some buildings before the weekend, thanks to this neat Kinect hack. It uses the sensor's RGB camera to tint your skin green and the Box2d physics engine (same as Angry Birds!) to deliver complete and utter pandemonium.