Matt Cutts: $1,000 to the 2 best implementations of the recently-hacked Kinect
mattcutts.com
mattcutts.com
Think about it. Just because the drivers let your computer see a hand doesn’t mean your computer can recognize it is a hand. That has to be done in software and doing that will be a massive amount of work. And that's just figuring out it's a hand. Not telling the program what a hand does. Anyone who has used a Kinect on the Xbox knows the software plays a huge part in its execution.
I’d wager the configuration program alone took Microsoft far longer than the 6 allotted weeks this contest gives.
I’d much rather see a high profile person like Matt Cutts start a fund for open source development of a Kinect library for Linux and then giving people the time to accomplish something great (it's certainly a project I'd be willing to donate to)
All Matt has to do is keep the conversation going, and get people thinking about what is possible. People will build great things, regardless of prize money, if they are inspired - that might be by Dec 31st or it could be 6 months from now...
To this end, its a success.
But it's fun and challenging work, exactly the sort of problem hackers are willing to devote lots of effort to. I expect progress to be surprisingly rapid.
I've even got some ideas for games for it, but of course, I don't have a license to officially program for it, and I don't think it works with the XNA. This means I have a chance to use with with the PC instead, though. If I can just find the time. ;)
But a person/team making it easy to write programs that use the Kinect on Linux may not be able to sell the software. So a contest makes sense.
On a side note, I think that the vocal capabilities of the device are far over looked. The voice recog is amazing.
Also, I should make clear that I'm doing this personally; the fact that I work for Google has nothing to do with it. If anything, I think Microsoft deserves props for bringing such cool technology to market. I hope Microsoft does really well with the Kinect and sells tons of them.
I do hope that the Kinect cost of materials is low enough that MSFT doesn't lose money on each Kinect they sell. But I have to think that the tinkerer/maker community is much smaller than the mass market for video gamers. My guess is that Kinect purchases for Linux will be a barely blip on MSFT's radar.
The Kinect experience so far is targeted at a wider audience than the traditional gamer. My mother, for example, absolutely loves the Kinect. She particularly likes the Tai Chi and yoga trainers in the "Your Shape" game. I didn't expect it to take off with her the way it did, but it's the first video game system where she really wants to play it.
Another thing: there are several different interfaces embodied in the launch titles around the same basic Kinect capabilities and interactions. If you want to develop new user experiences, now is a good time to check out what people are doing before everything settles into place. So it's worth at least visiting a friend who has one.
(Disclosure: I work at Microsoft. Speaking only for myself here, of course.)
Maybe not doing the same things (I remember they have a database of human positions and bone structure), but at least as good looking as.
Or maybe just plain useful for non-gamers.
Why haven't Microsoft or Sony, or better yet some video game maker we've never heard of, realized that building a platform to encourage "hacking" would make a lot of money. If Apple's App store has thought us anything it's that people want to be engaged on a deep level with devices such as video game consoles.
I must be missing something.
Because while it would make some money (perhaps 'a lot'), forcing people to buy their locked-in $60 games (and often more like $80 in UK and Europe) will make them even more.
I'm a total open-advocate so the above saddens me but that's why consoles are locked to license holders who buy access to build games for them.
Keep in mind that even at $150, the Kinnect is probably being sold at cost/loss at the moment so essentially they are subserdising the hardware to make money on the software.
My guess is that if "Open Kinnect" becomes a trend with a lot of applications, you can be sure someone like Logitech/etc will bring out an 'open' bundle of the same technology stack that can utilize the foundation of apps. But it will probably cost more as it won't be subsidized like MS are with Kinnect.
I think reverse-engineering definitely falls under the "hacking" umbrella. I would go so far as to call the winner of the Adafruit prize a hacker, not to mention kernel devs who manage to get a device working without proper documentation.
He says people are hacking on it. In the sense of this definition: http://catb.org/jargon/html/H/hacker.html
Though, my bet is you're just having a whinge, as opposed to actually commenting on this article.
I apologize for any offense or confusion it may have caused.