Technology
Got Kinect? Hacked it yet?
By Seattle Business Magazine November 10, 2010
It shouldn’t be a surprise when new products get hacked almost as soon as they are released. “Hacked” is a relative term with many possible meanings. In this case, New York-based Adafruit Industries recently offered a bounty of $2,000 to anyone who could deliver “Open source drivers for this cool USB device.”
That device is Microsoft’s new Kinect controller-less controller for the Xbox, it took Hector Martin (not sure if that’s his real name) about three hours to build an open-source API (application program interface) for the Kinect.
Three hours includes the time it took to take the box home, since he uploaded a video of him demonstrating his hack about three hours after the Kinect went on sale in Europe (I’m guessing he’s either Dutch or German, based on his accent). He doesn’t even own an Xbox. He runs Kinect from his Linux PC.
The upside of this, Martin and the Adafruit Industries people explain, is that it proves the concept that it can be done. But the really cool stuff is yet to happen. From Adafruit’s website: “We know this subsidized / commodity hardware can now be used for
robotics, art, science, education and more. For $150 its loaded with
tons of great sensors and camerasnow its unlocked for creativity.”
Microsoft was apparently not amused with the bounty offer, telling CNET that the company would continue work to make its product tamper-proof. Which prompted to up the bounty to $3,000 and throw in a $2,000 donation to the Electronic Frontier Foundation as well.