Video Daily: Microsoft Kinect hacked

Andre Yoskowitz
7 Nov 2010 23:37

Last week, Adafruit Industries sent notice that it was giving a $2000 USD prize to anyone who could hack the new Microsoft Kinect to run on devices that aren't the Xbox 360.
Reads the notice:

"Upload your code, examples and documentation to GitHub. First person / group to get RGB out with distance values being used wins, you're smart – you know what would be useful for the community out there. All the code needs to be open source and/or public domain."

Today, user "AlexP" of the NUI Group Community Forums has posted a video doing exactly what the contest asks for, so it seems like that $2000 may have a new owner.
The Kinect is being controlled via a PC in the video, but there are little other details.

When shown the video, Microsoft was not happy with the "hacking."

"Microsoft does not condone the modification of its products. With Kinect, Microsoft built in numerous hardware and software safeguards designed to reduce the chances of product tampering. Microsoft will continue to make advances in these types of safeguards and work closely with law enforcement and product safety groups to keep Kinect tamper-resistant," says the company, via Cnet.