Coder converts Kinect to air guitar
Tradin' clicks
And now the application for which Microsoft's Kinect Xbox add-on was born to run: air guitar.
Enterprising coder Chris O'Shea says he'd tried to create an air guitar rig three years ago, but it wasn't until the arrival of Kinect and the wealth of hacking tools that followed its launch that allowed him to create a (kind of) working air guitar:
Chris admits it's not perfect - you can only play chords based on the position of your hand along the neck, not the strings you're actually pressing. You also have to face the camera and not move too much.
But as hacker expose more of the Kinect's inner workings, the air guitar will be able to improve leaps and bounds, Chris reckons, making for some serious spanking of the virtual plank. ®
COMMENTS
Oh how soon we forget
MS first response was about unauthorised modification, pursuing to the maximum extent of the law, etc. Just what one would expect.
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13772_3-20021836-52.html
When they saw the PR shit-storm coming they suddenly changed their tune and tried to go all luvvy-duvvy. I don't buy it and nor do others. If MS were really happy about all the Kinect mods, where is the source and the technical documentation? Nowhere outside of MS.
I do not believe for one second that MS is happy about this, it won't be too long before they start suing people. They'll wait until some cool ideas surface, then sue of course.
Very nice, but...
... it's not complete until you can tune it to "Open E" and play "Smoke on the Water"!
Time for a Kinect Apps store?
Since MS missed the boat on Smart phones, perhaps they can make it with KINECT Apps ... until Jobs has time to file his prior art patents.
Get ur facts straight...
Actually microsoft are welcoming this use of the Kinnect. They say it's not hacked, and liking it: http://digitizor.com/2010/11/20/microsoft-says-yes-to-kinect-hacking/
MS bashing as usual hey? They initially didn't like it, but theres some cool things going on with it. Guided Quadrocopter, something very close to minority report, etc.
So Thomas 4 read up first.
stereoscopic 3D vision
already seen a kinect 'eye' being used on an autonomous quadracopter (youtube) to see objects whilst it is flying around. it really is superb tech. (and at a reasonable price to!) I'm really looking forward to seeing more ingenious uses... not just gesture related (air guitar)
I would like to be the first to welcome our kinect eyed autonomous friends.
