14 DAY TRIAL // Without a doubt, we've come across plenty of interesting uses for Microsoft's Kinect motion controller over the past few weeks, enabled by the various hacking procedures available out there, but, without a doubt, one of the coolest is the one a guy called Liam Nichols has come up with, since it will actually allow users to control their PC or notebook running the Windows 7 operating system as if it were a mouse.
The hack requires users to actually uninstall the previous libUSB drivers (first hacked driver for the Kinect) and install CL NUI SDK, then Mr. Nichols' KinectTouch application, which should make things a whole lot easier for the end user.
In fact, Mr. Nichols (better known by his online nickname, l14m333) points out that users will now be able to calibrate the Microsoft Kinect to one's own screen or wall area, and select directly the level of depth they require for mousing gesture.
Clicking and highlight/drag functions have also been improved, also they're still far from perfect (but, then again, this is a work in progress, so expect it to get better over time).
Since we don't really condone hacking, we won't be able to provide you with the download links for either of these applications, but we can tell you that they're available in various locations across the Internet.
As you can see from the video, motion still has a bit of lag and click detection is clearly plagued by all sorts of problems, but that doesn't stop us from witnessing what could really be the birth of a whole new trend in controlling a computer.
In fact, if this motion-control thing really manages to catch on, then the things we've seen in “Minority Report” and other Sci-Fi movies as well will become pretty much commonplace in just about any household, and we're really looking forward to that moment.