Kinect Potential

3 days and $3000. That’s all it took to crack the Kinect.

Adafruit originally announced a $1000 reward for the first user to produce working drivers, though this prize was subsequently raised to $2000, then $3000.

The first few hacks are merely a Proof-Of-Concept, but still show amazing potential for it with a PC.

How about a quick run through how the hacked Kinect works?

1. An infra-red light-source bathes the room with light.
2. A Infra-red sensor uses the reflections to calculate the distance to each object detected.
3. The camera films the scene, generating a colour image.
4. The data from the two cameras is used to create 3d polygons, on which the image is stretched, creating a 3d image, complete with textures.

At the moment, as the only video so far was created using just one Kinect, the render is more akin to cardboard cutouts, but add 3 or more devices in and you have an extremely efficient method of rendering rooms in realtime. This brings closer the possibility of virt-real-reality and interactive TV shows coming several steps closer, for a fraction of the current price.

That is if, of course, Microsoft doesn’t cancel the products…