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Microsoft confirms Kinect hackers to get official developer kit

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Re: Microsoft confirms Kinect hackers to get official developer kit

#31

Post by nitrogen »

dgabriel wrote: post #29
nitrogen wrote: post #24

I wonder how their motion tracking compares with PrimeSense's OpenNI and NITE. Does anybody know if this SDK provides full access to player tracking and gesture information, or is it basically like libfreenect, allowing access to the raw data?

I am guessing it will be more like the OpenNI drivers, since PrimeSense is already a MSFT partner.

It was my understanding that Microsoft doesn't use PrimeSense's gesture and motion tracking software, but instead wrote their own. Unfortunately, I can't remember where I read that.

Re: Microsoft confirms Kinect hackers to get official developer kit

#32

Post by dgabriel »

nitrogen wrote: post #31
dgabriel wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am guessing it will be more like the OpenNI drivers, since PrimeSense is already a MSFT partner.

It was my understanding that Microsoft doesn't use PrimeSense's gesture and motion tracking software, but instead wrote their own. Unfortunately, I can't remember where I read that.

I googled a bit, but wasn't able to find any corroborating evidence. Please post it here when/if you find it. In any case, it will be interesting to compare the APIs when MS releases theirs.

Re: Microsoft confirms Kinect hackers to get official developer kit

#33

Post by greendestiny »

oldstrangers wrote: post #2

I think this is a great step for Microsoft. I believe they've learned a lot from the good PR that Android has received due in part to Androids large and outspoken developer community. I'm sure Microsoft has also noticed a lot of the negativity surrounding Motorola and their decision to lock down boot loaders (effectively removing any developers chance to mess with the phone). That and the mess that Sony has created b…

I think Microsoft has been dragged into this and they aren't embracing it nearly quick enough. Primesense has been distributing an open source sdk for a while now http://www.openni.org/ and Microsoft want to keep some control of the device. They still haven't allowed any indie developer access to the Kinect on the Xbox and they are in danger of completely blowing the potential of the device as the next paradigm of people interacting with computers in their living rooms.

Re: Microsoft confirms Kinect hackers to get official developer kit

#35

Post by eyeareque »

wslh wrote: post #9
oldstrangers wrote: post #2

I think this is a great step for Microsoft. I believe they've learned a lot from the good PR that Android has received due in part to Androids large and outspoken developer community. I'm sure Microsoft has also noticed a lot of the negativity surrounding Motorola and their decision to lock down boot loaders (effectively removing any developers chance to mess with the phone). That and the mess that Sony has created b…

It's ironic, but Microsoft almost always supported products that reverse engineered their software. One of our products was based on internals research and we received a proposal from their QA team to test our product in Windows 7. If I remember well, the Samba team had issues in the past with this practice, and also the activesync protocol is jealously protected (and licensed to Google).

Microsoft started to help the Samba team because of a lawsuit, not because they felt like being nice to OSS:

http://www.informationweek.com/news/software/enterprise_apps...

Re: Microsoft confirms Kinect hackers to get official developer kit

#36

Post by martin_k »

ot wrote: post #30
martin_k wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't actually find that too surprising. Microsoft did basically the same with the Surface SDK.

There is a difference: a Surface doesn't cost 149$

True, but the point was that Microsoft has previously realized that it can be a good idea to open their HW platforms to developers and researchers.

Re: Microsoft confirms Kinect hackers to get official developer kit

#37

Post by nutmeg »

dgabriel wrote: post #28
sudonim wrote: post #23

This is great news! Would there be interest from hackers to participate in a competition to spur open-sourced innovation for the Kinect when the SDK comes out?

There's already a $20,000 prize for a natural interaction based browser: http://www.openni.org/developerschallenge There are probably more.

The competition closed today :-(

Re: Microsoft confirms Kinect hackers to get official developer kit

#38

Post by martin_k »

dgabriel wrote: post #32
nitrogen wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It was my understanding that Microsoft doesn't use PrimeSense's gesture and motion tracking software, but instead wrote their own. Unfortunately, I can't remember where I read that.

I googled a bit, but wasn't able to find any corroborating evidence. Please post it here when/if you find it. In any case, it will be interesting to compare the APIs when MS releases theirs.

I remember Ilan Spillinger (http://www.xbox.com/en-US/Press/Corporate/ilan-spillinger) saying something like that at a talk he gave recently- Microsoft Research played a huge role in the development, iirc.

/edit: This talk has some info about it http://research.microsoft.com/apps/video/dl.aspx?id=139295 (MSR guy starts around 1h00m)

Re: Microsoft confirms Kinect hackers to get official developer kit

#39

Post by Bossman »

Very happy about this. Was thinking of picking up a Kinect when the original hackers made a USB driver and started an SDK. Decided to wait and I'm so glad Microsoft is actually pushing it like this. Would love to see it all tied in to Visual Studio and/or XNA.
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