Remember when Spanish super-brain Hector Martin hacked Kinect, got open source drivers running on PC and scooped up a cash prize for his efforts? Well, the fruits of his labors are already showing, as creators, hackers and developers begin using Kinect for interesting new projects.
The first properly impressive use of Microsoft's new peripheral comes from Oliver Kreylos, as he shows off Kinect being used as a 3-D video capture tool. Thanks to the Kinect's depth-sensing camera, which bounces thousands of infrared dots off objects in your room to detect how far away they are (much like sonar or echolocation, but with light), Kreylos can use that depth data to make a crude 3-D reconstruction of his room.
The results are, to put it mildly, mind-boggling. In the video above, the UC Davis visualization researcher shows how he can fly a virtual camera around his room, in real time, showing a 3-D representation of himself, his curtains, a mug of brew and his computer. Parts that the camera can't see aren't represented, making Kreylos look like half of a hollow husk, but it's an impressive start. You'd presumably need a couple more Kinect devices to make a full 3-D image.
But that's not all it's capable of. In the next video (above), Kreylos uses the 3-D reconstruction of his room to accurately measure an object. He places two nodes on two angles of a box, with a couple of clicks, and the computer spits out the exact length of the object: 37.5 centimeters, if you were curious.
It's a very promising start to what will no doubt be a prosperous community, especially seeing as Kinect only launched earlier this month.
Nintendo's Wii Remote has already used for a wealth of community projects, interface hacks and more, creating a vibrant scene and some truly interesting projects – I still use a Wii Remote to control a Super Nintendo emulator on my iPad. But considering the leap in technology contained within Microsoft's ambitious peripheral, who knows where these early results will lead?
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