Uh. They could invoke the DMCA if they wanted to. They've openly stated that they want people to make unofficial driver and do things outside the scope of what it's officially meant to do. Sorry but MS is not evil. And the Kinect is not best piece of tech for virtual reality. There are far better techs out of there. It's just that this piece of tech is the most affordable. Also, the PS3 has something similar.

Also if you have a hundreds or thousands of programmers creating drivers and tech demos, that's like employing those same programmers for free. Think about it.

Quote: Original post by Alpha_ProgDes
Also if you have a hundreds or thousands of programmers creating drivers and tech demos, that's like employing those same programmers for free. Think about it.

pretty much. Let everyone play then send 5 guys to dig through code and compile the best parts into future products.

Seems like proof of concept stuff could go a lot quicker this way too. Get all the outside the box ideas out quickly.

Doesn't Johnny Lee (of Wii Virtual Head Tracking fame) work for Microsoft now? I'm surprised he's not running Kinect-look-what-I-can-do-with-unofficial-drivers R&D and dropping a youtube videos left and right.

When someone creates a UI on top of Windows/Linux/OS-X so you can Minority Report the screen, that's gonna be a happy day. Not because it'll be useful, but because it's coolness factor is going to take creativity and consumer response to UX to another level.

There's no better mass market than the games industry to push the limits of hardware. I expect to see Kinect (or it's spinoffs) in other markets in the near future.

Quote: Original post by Plasmana
There's no better mass market than the games industry to push the limits of hardware. I expect to see Kinect (or it's spinoffs) in other markets in the near future.

I personally think it would have been better used in the auto industry. Imagine cars that drive for you and almost never make a mistake. It could actually be saving liefs instead of just being a cool toy.

Quote: Original post by SteveDeFacto

Quote: Original post by Plasmana
There's no better mass market than the games industry to push the limits of hardware. I expect to see Kinect (or it's spinoffs) in other markets in the near future.

I personally think it would have been better used in the auto industry. Imagine cars that drive for you and almost never make a mistake. It could actually be saving liefs instead of just being a cool toy.

Or kill people when it doesn't work right, hence games being a better market for bleeding edge technology.

Quote: Original post by SteveDeFacto
I personally think it would have been better used in the auto industry. Imagine cars that drive for you and almost never make a mistake. It could actually be saving liefs instead of just being a cool toy.

Having worked with this system for a while when it was still Natal and having seen the mistakes it could make tracking the human body all I have to say to this is lulz.

Quote: Original post by phantom

Quote: Original post by SteveDeFacto
I personally think it would have been better used in the auto industry. Imagine cars that drive for you and almost never make a mistake. It could actually be saving liefs instead of just being a cool toy.

Having worked with this system for a while when it was still Natal and having seen the mistakes it could make tracking the human body all I have to say to this is lulz.

Tracking a complex 3D figure such as the human body is far more prone to error than tracking traffic signs or dashed lines on the road...

Quote: Original post by SteveDeFacto

Quote: Original post by Plasmana
There's no better mass market than the games industry to push the limits of hardware. I expect to see Kinect (or it's spinoffs) in other markets in the near future.

I personally think it would have been better used in the auto industry. Imagine cars that drive for you and almost never make a mistake. It could actually be saving liefs instead of just being a cool toy.

they already have similar technology being used for vehicle automation. I forget which branch of the government does it, but every year there's a contest to get cars to drive themselves on a road course and off road with no assistance from drivers.

I think a lot of them use LIDAR.

edit: it's the darpa grand challenge.

Quote: Original post by SteveDeFacto

Quote: Original post by phantom

Quote: Original post by SteveDeFacto
I personally think it would have been better used in the auto industry. Imagine cars that drive for you and almost never make a mistake. It could actually be saving liefs instead of just being a cool toy.

Having worked with this system for a while when it was still Natal and having seen the mistakes it could make tracking the human body all I have to say to this is lulz.

Tracking a complex 3D figure such as the human body is far more prone to error than tracking traffic signs or dashed lines on the road...

Except when it makes an error tracking a human you just have to restart the level. When it makes a error tracking a cat running across the street your car runs into a wall. I'm not quite as willing to place my life in the hands of machines until the technology has matured more.

For cars, I think having sensors on both sides of the road and the lane dividers with some kind of grid to keep animals off the road and just have the car maintain a position in the middle of the sensors would be much safer.

To be honest, your post just seems like a anti Microsoft outlet. As the poster above me pointed out, if you did any kind of research on the matter you would know much more advanced systems actually designed for cars are already in development.