Tag: MICROSOFTKINECT

Two of the most popular toys amongst DIY enthusiasts right now are the Arduino and the Microsoft Kinect. So what happens when you combine them? Probably the most impressive hack of either device we've ever seen. Created by Michael Zöllner and Stephan Huber from the University of Konstanz, NAVI (or Navigational Aids for the Visually Impaired) allows the blind to easily navigate an ...

Scientists have already discovered a variety of health benefits that video games offer to elderly gamers, including heightened mental acuity and vision restoration. After performing a 10-week observational study, Dr. Patricia Kahlbaugh of Southern Connecticut State University now believes that motion control gaming alleviates other afflictions that commonly plague senior citizens, including ...

Water levels in video games have been terrible since Mario's first attempt at swimming in level 2-2, and things haven't improved much over the years as Ecco, Link and countless others have waded into the sea. Games that approximate the sport of swimming itself, often hastily tacked onto the year's Summer Olympics package, have been universally bad, marked by mindless controls, poor animation, and ...

While surgical robots are much more precise than clunky human hands, the surgeons who use these devices aren't able to guide the 'bots with their natural sense of touch, and this can make it easier to bump into a delicate organ or artery. In response to this problem, some graduate engineering students at the University of Washington recently developed an Xbox 360 Kinect hack, which uses the ...

Well, it was inevitable. The second we start augmenting reality, using our bodies as controllers, and bringing our physical spaces into video games, we are immediately going to start thinking of virtual sex. The porn industry is no slouch when it comes to getting with the technological times, but, with the Kinect and gesture-based game play, video game booty is the clear next step. So ...

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 ...

The Xbox 360's Kinect motion-control system provoked comical moments of ungainly, destructive gaming immediately upon its release. Thankfully (for those with a predilection for schadenfreude), that oafish hilarity has continued at an almost exponential rate. Well, Microsoft just revealed a significant reason for the abundance of Kinect casualties, and it relates to the Kinect's market success. ...

You might not know this, but Peter Molyneux is a genius (well, according to Managing Editor Leila Brillson, since they are best friends). The man behind 'Black & White' and the 'Fable' series isn't content to hand gamers a controller, and tell them to mash buttons until the baddies are gone. He wants you to empathize with the characters, engage emotionally with the game, and consider the ...

Highlights from this morning's other big tech headlines.... The Recording Industry Association of America recently triumphed over filesharers in a momentous Limewire copyright suit, and now the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) apparently hopes to achieve its own victory over Google. The BPI has issued a cease and desist letter to the search engine in hopes that Google will remove ...

Kicking off the series of keynotes at the Electronics Entertainment Expo (colloquially dubbed E3), Microsoft led the way with a new console (now with Zune music), more details on Kinect (previously codenamed Natal), a video chat service and an ESPN partnership. Some details about Microsoft's motion-sensing tech leaked yesterday, and the keynote confirmed a November 4th launch date for Kinect and ...

We've barely settled in here in Los Angeles for this year's 2010 Electronics Entertainment Expo (E3), and Microsoft's motion-sensing "use your body as a controller" Project Natal tech has already been redubbed 'Kinect.' Just hours before Microsoft's Sunday night event, USA Today's Game Hunters blog revealed the system's new official name and a list of early titles. Kinect creative director ...