14 DAY TRIAL // The Kinect controller for the Microsoft Xbox 360 is very interesting gadget. While its purpose is to get more people playing and buying games, those who wouldn't otherwise be interested in gaming, a different set of people is very interested in the device, robotics enthusiasts and electronics geeks who see the potential of Kinect as a cheap sensor.
And they've got reasons to celebrate, an open-source driver for the device is already available, barely one week after its official launch.
Adafruit Industries, an open-source hardware manufacturer, offered a reward or $1,000 to the first hacker or team to provide a completely open-source driver for the peripheral.
It later upped the reward to $2,000 and finally to $3,000. Now it's saying that one hacker, Hector Martin, has won the challenge providing a Linux driver for Kinect which supports video output from the camera as well as depth.
The enterprising hacker will receive the $3,000, which he says he will invest in hacking hardware, and Adafruit decided to donate $2,000 to the Electronic Frontier Foundation.
"We have verified that it works and have a screenshot from another member in the hacking community (thanks qdot!) who was also able to use the code. Congrats to Hector! He’s running all this on a Linux laptop (his code works with OpenGL) and doesn’t even have an Xbox!," Adafruit wrote on its blog.
"Hector has decided to invest this bounty into hacking tools and devices for a group of people he works with closely (e.g. iPhone Dev Team members, Wii hacker team Team Twiizers, and a few others)," the post added.
Kinect connects to the Xbox 360 via USB meaning it could also be used on any PC out there. The device has a video camera, a depth camera and a microphone array enabling it to track movement and accept voice commands.
The most interesting part for the DIY roboticists is the depth sensor. The Kinect floods the room with infrared beams which are then reflected by objects and people and captured by the monochrome depth camera.
Similar stand-alone sensors are significantly more expensive making the Kinect a very interesting alternative.
There are several reasons why the device is so cheap, about $150 in the US. The fact that it will be mass produced is one, but the biggest is because Microsoft is subsidizing the hardware and making up for the loss with software sales. This is why game consoles are so cheap in the first place.
Of course, if you're buying the Kinect to build your own robots or for similar projects, you're not going to spend anything on buying Xbox 360 games, so Microsoft doesn't like the idea one bit.
The software giant has said that it doesn't take kindly to people messing with its hardware and has more-or-less threatened legal action against any attempt like the open-source driver.
In fact, Adafruit's donation to the EFF, which has stood up for people's right to modify hardware they own, can be seen as more of a precaution than anything else.
With the Linux driver now available, interesting project should be landing soon. Of course, while the hardware is important, the crucial part of Kinect is the software and it may be a while until others can match Microsoft's own software for the Xbox 360.
