Hasta La Gadget!

Razorfish is a little marketing company that has done some impressive things on Microsoft’s Surface, things you may or may not have seen because that particular brand of pedestal hasn’t exactly become a threat to the global dumbtable market. One of Razorfish’s cool things is a so-called Surface Physics Illustrator called DaVinci, which lets a user doodle on the screen and turn those doodles into balls, boxes, levers, and fulcrums. Now that code has effectively ported that code over to Kinect, as you can see in the video below, letting you do the same sort of things but with thine own two hands floating in mid-air. You can cause shapes to levitate, create gravity between them, make things orbit, even enable magnetism that alternately pulls and hurls your little doodles across the screen. The company is said to be continuing to refine the experience and maybe, if you all ask nice, they’ll even release the app when they’re through so you can try it for yourself.

[Thanks, Luke]

Continue reading Razorfish ports DaVinci interface to Kinect, makes physics cool (video)

Razorfish ports DaVinci interface to Kinect, makes physics cool (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 05 Dec 2010 11:44:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  Razorfish  | Email this | Comments

It’s holiday season crunch time. As always, we here at Gearlog are dedicated to helping you pick out the best gifts for those gamers in your life. We’ll be offering up lists of the best holiday gifts you can buy on each platform, including the Xbox 360, Nintendo Wii, PlayStation 3, and PC.

We’re starting off our roundups with Microsoft’s console, which is sure to have a banner year thanks in no small part to the introduction of the Kinect for Xbox 360, and the continued success of Bungie’s Halo Line.

After the jump, check out some surefire hits for the holidays.

The sound of the original theremin frightened audiences of spooky and science fictiony movies in the ’50s and ’60s, and while this digital replication is perhaps a little less chilling it’s also a lot less physical. It’s the so-called Therenect from Martin Kaltenbrunner, created using the Open Frameworks and OpenKinect libraries. To play just hold your hands up, allow the software to detect them, and then let the digital falsetto flow, as Martin kindly demonstrates for you below.

Continue reading Kinect theremin is just too late for the ‘Day the Earth Stood Still’ remake soundtrack (video)

Kinect theremin is just too late for the ‘Day the Earth Stood Still’ remake soundtrack (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 02 Dec 2010 01:07:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Create Digital Music  |  Therenect (vimeo)  | Email this | Comments

It’s been almost two years since the XIM2 finally became available, letting Xbox 360 gamers bring some additional inputs to their gaming — namely a keyboard and a mouse. Now its successor is nearing availability and its final form has been unleashed to the world. This version is considerably more advanced than its predecessor, sporting a little LCD for easier programming and some very advanced game-specific tuning called “Smart Translators.” These handle various settings for various games, automatically deleting the various sized and various shaped dead zones employed by various shooters, demonstrated in a video below. No price has been announced yet, but we’re guessing it’ll cost a good bit more than the (now discontinued) XIM2’s $149.99.

[Thanks, K. Green]

Continue reading XIM3 final hardware revealed, coming soon to give an unfair advantage in Xbox 360 shooters (video)

XIM3 final hardware revealed, coming soon to give an unfair advantage in Xbox 360 shooters (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 01 Dec 2010 19:59:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  XIM3 Development Blog  | Email this | Comments

I think it’s safe to say at this point that Microsoft has a bona fide hit on its hands with the Kinect. The hands-free motion controller surpassed 2.5 million units in its first month, thanks to a last minute rush of pre-holiday Black Friday sales. Microsoft hit that number in 25 days.

“We are thrilled about the consumer response to Kinect, and are working hard with our retail and manufacturing partners to expedite production and shipments of Kinect to restock shelves as fast as possible to keep up with demand,” Microsoft exec Don Mattrick said in a statement. “With sales already exceeding two and a half million units in just 25 days, we are on pace to reach our forecast of 5 million units sold to consumers this holiday.”

At present, the Xbox 360 controller is available through 60,000 plus retailers in 38 countries. Retailers like Target have called the device a “top performer,” committing themselves to keeping the device available through the holiday