It’s always a good idea to give your pets lots of exercise and freedom. But how does that work with a fish who are reliant on a tank full of water to live? That’s easy; you just strap its aquarium to an RC car and rig up a device that lets the fish steer.
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When Microsoft first launched its slick Kinect motion tracking and facial recognition system, it was hacked for all sorts of uses including reading sign language. It appears that yet another … Continue reading
The Kinect peripheral for Microsoft’s Xbox gaming console is capable of accomplishing a lot of tasks, motion sensing being a major task in itself. This technology has been leveraged by Jae Kwan Ko, a self-taught coder who has set up a surveillance system based on Kinect at the demilitarized zone or DMZ between the borders of North and South Korea.
Kinect Guards The Korean Border original content from Ubergizmo. 
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Remember how frustrating those Magic Eye images were when you were a kid? It seemed like everyone but you could see the hidden message. Until you figured it out and rubbed it in everyone’s face that they couldn’t see it. This video by Young Rival is just like those Magic Eye pictures only it turns the whole hidden message thing into one entire music video. It’s so much fun.
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Smartphones, smartwatches, smart home appliances
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Some might think it is narcissistic to make a figurine of oneself, but one the other hand it would make a great gift to your significant other, or maybe even your parents who might want to remember you in 3D-likeness if you were to go overseas for work or studies. Well if you’ve always wanted to do something like that and you have a Kinect device at home, well you can do that thanks to shapify.me’s website. The website basically takes advantage of the Kinect’s 3D scanning technology to help develop a 3D figurine of yourself and will print it out in 3D.
In fact if you don’t want to scan yourself, shapify.me states that users are free to scan any object that is able to maintain a pose and a facial expression, but has warned against scanning transparent, shiny, or glossy surfaces, which we reckon might give the Kinect’s scanning abilities a hard time, not to mention could mess up the final printout which could be distorted. In order to make use of their website, it requires that users have audio speakers, a USB 2.0 connection, an internet connection, a Kinect for the Xbox or Windows. As for how much it costs, the company has estimated it should cost $59 for a 7-10cm 3D printout of the scan. If you’d like to learn more, hit up its website for more details! Alternatively you can check out the video above for more details as well.
3D Printing Service Uses Your Kinect To Make Mini Figurines Of Yourself original content from Ubergizmo. 
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We have seen the Oculus Rift used for more immersive gaming experiences, and while the Kinect was designed for gaming in mind, it has also managed to find use in non-gaming environments, which is why it is no surprise to find that NASA has managed to find a way to use both the Oculus Rift and the Kinect to control the robots that they send into space. While remotely controlling robots from Earth is definitely not new, by using the Oculus Rift and the Kinect, it allows NASA to control their robots to an even greater degree, not to mention the immersive experience provided by the Oculus Rift headset might make it seem like they are right there in space themselves.
This project was put together by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, with their engineers stating that this setup has to be the most immersive interface that they have yet to build. While the engineers have experimented with the original Kinect, it was the Kinect 2’s improved accuracy and ability to detect finger and wrist positions that helped provide them with a greater degree of accuracy and control. According to Human Interfaces Engineer, Victor Luo, “Imagine…how inspirational it would be for a 7-year old to control a space robot with the tools h’s already familiar with!” If you have a minute or two to spare, you can check out the demonstration in the video above.
NASA Engineers Use Oculus Rift And Kinect 2 To Control Robots original content from Ubergizmo. 
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For those of you lucky enough to have caught Kanye West’s Yeezus tour as it came down upon the earth over the past few months, you’ll have witnessed the world’s … Continue reading
People at Microsoft who were critical for the Kinect project are often referred to as the “fathers of Kinect,” and Alex Kipman is believed to be one such individual. Having already worked at Microsoft for the creation of Kinect as well as Windows Ultimate Edition, it is now reported that Kipman has been assigned the task of working on Redmond’s wearable devices. Folks at The Verge have heard that his team is involved in testing and customizing Windows on prototypes of wearable devices. Redmond is believed to be working on its very own smartwatch as well as a Google Glass rival.
Kipman and his team are said to be testing various prototypes so that it can be decided if it makes sense to bring these devices out of the prototype stage and turn them into a real product. One such prototype is believed to be Kinect Glasses a.k.a Project Fortaleza, described as “breakthrough heads-up and hands-free device” with augmented reality and Wi-Fi or 4G support. So far Microsoft has been mum about its wearable device plans. 2014 is believed to be a big year for these devices, with both Apple and Samsung expected to release new wearable devices. Google is set to make waves too, it plans to ship Google Glass to the public next year.
Microsoft Assigns Wearable Windows Devices To A ‘Father Of Kinect’ original content from Ubergizmo. 
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Researchers at MIT have created a new way to track movement through walls, and it is even more accurate and revealing than the motion tracking technology they created in June of this year. It’s called WiTrack, and it can sense a person’s movements in three dimensions — physical occlusions or no. It’s an update to […]
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