Hasta La Gadget!

Continue reading Kinect hack turns you into a punching, waving MIDI controller (video)

Kinect hack turns you into a punching, waving MIDI controller (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 03 Jan 2011 17:59:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  Kinect Hacks  | Email this | Comments

PrimeSense provides some of the brains behind Microsoft’s Kinect, and wants a bigger piece of the pie; ASUS has a reputation for announcing wonderfully wacky peripherals every year. At CES 2011, the Wavi Xtion will check off both boxes nicely. In a nutshell, the Xtion is a PrimeSense 3D depth camera built exclusively for PC, but with an important twist — it connects to a pair of ASUS Wavi boxes, which wirelessly streams its data to your living room PC between your TV and a Windows PC over the 5GHz band. Oh, and should ASUS attract enough developers, it will even pull down applications from an Xtion online store. ASUS says we’ll see the package commercially available around the world in Q2 of next year — with a UI and selection of apps and games on board — but they’ll release an Xtion PRO developer kit in February to tempt all you Kinect hackers into coding magical things for the platform. No more details for now, but there’s an event in Vegas this week where ASUS is all but guaranteed to show it off. PR after the break.

Update: Did we say HTPC? Turns out it doesn’t quite work that way — the Wavi are actually a pair of boxes that wirelessly sling data between them. You put the Xtion sensor on top of your TV, connect it to Wavi #1, then plug Wavi #2 into a PC up to 25 meters away. Mind you, it looks like the Xtion may not be quite as capable as Microsoft’s unit, as there’s only infrared hardware inside — it might be fine for gesture control, but don’t expect any augmented reality lightsaber fights. See some mockups below!

Continue reading PrimeSense and ASUS team, bring Kinect-like Wavi Xtion to your living room TV (update)

PrimeSense and ASUS team, bring Kinect-like Wavi Xtion to your living room TV (update) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 03 Jan 2011 13:11:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |   | Email this | Comments

We’ve seen plenty of Kinect hacks over the last few weeks — trouble is, beyond the initial wow factor they’re just not very useful on a daily basis. That situation just changed, however, with the release of KinEmote, a free public beta that lets Windows users navigate XBMC and Boxee menus using nothing but hand gestures. Better yet, the software is built around OpenNI and NITE middleware from PrimeSense, the company behind the Project Natal reference gear. It certainly looks impressive in the video after the break. Good enough that we suspect many of you will hit up the source link below instead of finishing up your last minute holiday shopping — hey, Santa can wait, this is progress!

Continue reading KinEmote: Kinect gesture control for Boxee and XBMC media centers now available (video)

KinEmote: Kinect gesture control for Boxee and XBMC media centers now available (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 24 Dec 2010 01:12:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  KinEmote  | Email this | Comments

There’s been no shortage whatsoever of PC control schemes using Kinect, but up until now, every bit of it has been without Microsoft’s official blessing. Of course, the company eventually caved to the massive amount of hacking going on and confessed that it didn’t have any hard feelings for those giving it a whirl, but is it really fixing to take things one step further with bona fide PC support? That’s the talk emanating from South Korea, where game developer GamePrix has reported that at least one of its titles (Divine Soul, if you must know) is “scheduled to support Kinect.” Continuing on about the game, the company’s Jason Lim was quoted as saying that “Kinect will soon be available as a new PC controller,” but naturally, we’ve our doubts. For starters, why wouldn’t Microsoft be working with a more major developer if honest-to-goodness PC-Kinect interactions were planned? Secondly, there’s a definite possibility that GamePrix could really be referring to unofficial support, which would make everything seem a lot more sensible. Either way, we’ll definitely be keeping an ear to the ground for more, and with GDC under three months away, we ought to know the truth sooner rather than later.

[Thanks, Rashad]

Kinect rumored to have PC support in waiting originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 22 Dec 2010 17:56:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink TechSpot  |  IncGamers  | Email this | Comments

At this point, we all have a serious question to ask: is there anything the Kinect can’t do? While Microsoft has managed to move quite a few of the camera-laden tubes, a good amount of ’em have been put to use in applications not named gaming. Take the Virtopsy Project, for instance. This particular setup uses the Kinect camera bar to control a PACS system (OsiriX, in this case), and it relies on software based on “ofxKinect, libfreenect and open frameworks.” That’s a lot of technobabble for sure, but as they say, the proof is in the YouTube video. Ever dreamed of swirling medical images around with hand gestures? Head on down and mash play — fantasyland awaits.

Continue reading Kinect admits itself to hospital, treated for gesture control of medical images

Kinect admits itself to hospital, treated for gesture control of medical images originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 21 Dec 2010 16:38:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  Adafruit, YouTube (Virtopsy Project)  | Email this | Comments