Kinect Hacks, Vol. II: Robots, Quadrocopters and an Invisibility Cloak

The modding and hacking community is simply having a field day with Microsoft's Kinect. It was just a couple of weeks ago that we highlighted a few of the fun and impressive things that people much smarter than us were doing with the latest in motion-controlled gaming peripherals. But those innovations already look simplistic next to the crazy things being cooked up in living rooms and labs across the country. The Kinect has been connected with impressive gesture controls and robots far more advanced than Roombas; even invisibility is possible with the aid of its depth-sensitive cameras and some fancy software. Keep reading after the break for a few recent Kinect hacks that got our attention.

Pan Around the Room Without Moving the Camera

When first we met Oliver Kreylos, he was using his Kinect to create hologram-like images that he could explore in three dimensions, moving a virtual camera around his very real room. Recently, Kreylos added a second Kinect, which has allowed him to create much more complete and life-like images. By combining the video feeds, including the depth data, from both Kinects, Kreylos is able to create a richer 3-D image without the huge swaths of empty space seen in the first video. The ability to create new camera angles simply by combining video feeds from two stationary cameras in real-time is one of the more impressive things we've seen a Kinect (or a pair of Kinects) do.

Making a Quadrocopter More Deadly

Autonomous quadrocopters are some of the most impressive and terrifying pieces of technology we've ever seen. These agile, future deliverers of death are already frighteningly adept at turning on a dime and flying through hoops thrown in the air. With a Kinect strapped to the top of their quadrocopter, researchers at the Hybrid Systems Lab at UC Berkeley are able to replace a number of expensive sensors, and use the Kinect as a radar system, successfully navigating a room and avoiding obstacles. The hack is quite remarkable on its own, but it's quite terrifying to know that technology capable of guiding an autonomous killing machine can now be found in a $150 gaming peripheral.

Insert 'Minority Report' Reference Here

Inevitably, every time someone whips up a gesture-based interface, it's compared to a certain Steven Spielberg film based on a certain Philip K. Dick story. We'll avoid that here and simply tell you to check out Razorfish's DaVinci software, a physics and drawing playground that allows the user to both interact with objects on the screen and to alter gravity and magnetism in the virtual world. Normally, DaVinci is used with a touchscreen, but developers have hacked the software to work with the Kinect. But, as the developers wave their hands and toss objects around the projector screen in the demo above, we're reminded less of the Department of Future Crime and more of a Force-wielding Jedi.

Virtual Cloak of Invisibility

The Kinect may finally answer your dreams of being able to enter a room undetected, provided the person you're trying to elude is observing the room through the Kinect's camera feed. We weren't able to dig up much information about how this one works, but it appears that hacker Takayuki Fukatsu created a way to manipulate the Kinect's video in real-time, in order to mask his appearance. All that can be made out of Fukatsu in the too-long video above is a transparent mass, not terribly dissimilar to the cloaking effect seen in the Predator films. Is it useful? Not particularly. Is it cool? Absolutely.

Make Music by Moving

Martin Kaltenbrunner uses the Kinect to monitor the movement of a user's hands, and feeds the resulting data into a program he's dubbed 'Therenect.' The software simulates the classic electronic instrument that starred in many horror and sci-fi film soundtracks from the 1960s. (It's also featured prominently on the Beach Boys classic 'Good Vibrations.') Just like a real theremin, one hand controls pitch and the other controls volume. But the Therenect replaces proximity-sensing antennae with a Kinect, which uses its cameras to track movement relative to a pair of virtual antenna points. Best of all, Kaltenbrunner plans to release Therenect to the public as soon as it's ready.

Kinect Partners With a Real Robot

Sure, putting a Kinect on a Roomba is cool... we guess. But let's be honest -- the Roomba isn't much of a hacker toy. Willow Garage's PR2 Robot, however, is a real machine. The Garage hooked up a Kinect to the control computer running the Robot Operating System to create a powerful 'bot controlled entirely by gestures. Rather than program an arcane series of commands or rely on a cumbersome joystick, Willow Garage's developers are now able to control the PR2, simply by waving their arms in front of a Kinect -- directing the 'bot to to pick up items, close its hands and lift objects. We bet NASA scientists are getting a little jealous watching this one.

Tags: diy, gaming, hacks, kinect, microsoft, microsoft kinect, MicrosoftKinect, top, xbox360