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Microsoft's Kinect camera motion gaming system has been "hacked" only a week after release, but Microsoft are not only not complaining, they have actually expressed excitement at the development.
This is because Microsoft do not consider what has happened to be hacking, despite earlier statements indicating otherwise.
The "hacking" resulted in the release of open source drivers for the Kinect device, which then allows users to use the motion system on other devices, including computers. The driver allows the motion signals interpreted by the camera to be accessed, allowing for the development of Kinect supporting PC software.
But Microsoft say that the ease in which Kinect was "hacked" was by design, since they did not put any effort to protect the USB bus, even going as far as saying they were hoping people would develop something similar and make Kinect do more than what it was designed to do. This is certainly nothing new in the motion gaming arena, as third party drivers were also developed for the Wii remote to allow it to work on PCs.
Microsoft went on to explain that their definition of "hacking" involves getting and using the actual software algorithm in Kinect or deploying some kind of cheating device.
In any case, users have been quick to take advantage of Kinect's PC connections, and there have already been some impressive tech demos on just what could be possible (see videos below).
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This is because Microsoft do not consider what has happened to be hacking, despite earlier statements indicating otherwise.
The "hacking" resulted in the release of open source drivers for the Kinect device, which then allows users to use the motion system on other devices, including computers. The driver allows the motion signals interpreted by the camera to be accessed, allowing for the development of Kinect supporting PC software.
But Microsoft say that the ease in which Kinect was "hacked" was by design, since they did not put any effort to protect the USB bus, even going as far as saying they were hoping people would develop something similar and make Kinect do more than what it was designed to do. This is certainly nothing new in the motion gaming arena, as third party drivers were also developed for the Wii remote to allow it to work on PCs.
Microsoft went on to explain that their definition of "hacking" involves getting and using the actual software algorithm in Kinect or deploying some kind of cheating device.
In any case, users have been quick to take advantage of Kinect's PC connections, and there have already been some impressive tech demos on just what could be possible (see videos below).
More:
) that plugs into the 360 Slim, and that's the only cable you need. With the standalone, you get a power supply (basically what's shown on that Microsoft store link I posted above) that plus into the power socket, and connected to this power supply is also a USB cable for connecting to the back of the (old school) Xbox 360. There's also a wifi-extender USB cable thing that allows you to use both the Kinect and the wi-fi extender add-on at the same time.
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