Hacking Microsoft's Kinect | SMLXL - Business and Communication Innovation from Alan Moore

Hacking Microsoft’s Kinect

December 5th, 2010

Over 10 million people bought a Kinect in the first 10 days of launch, a reward ($1000) was offered by Adafruit, for Hackers to get Kinect to run on alternative operating systems. Microsoft announced it would bring in the legal beagles were this to happen. Adafruit upped the prize money to $2000.

Over a matter of days, the code was hacked and made open. As a consequence, (Inside the race to hack the Kinect)

The hackers’ success has unlocked what promises to be a revolution in robotics research. At robotics company Willow Garage in Palo Alto, California, researchers have bought around 20 Kinects. “We’re losing count,” says engineer Ken Conley. He and colleagues have shown that multiple Kinects can be combined without generating interference and are currently integrating the device into the company’s PR2 robot.

At the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, engineer Philipp Robbel has already run a proof-of-concept experiment in which he used the Kinect to provide vision for a robot. He says the Kinect could one day help produce cheap robots that could scour disaster areas for victims.

All amazing stuff – of course the story questions orthodox issues around IP, the nature of value creation, innovation and entrepreneurship – what is shared or what be shared to kickstart innovation and what is not. Commonwealth in the networked society [3] Big Pharma

As this video shows Kinect controlling Windows 7