“The first person who figures out how to build an open-source driver for Microsoft’s much-hyped new Kinect motion controller could win a USD 2000 bounty offered by a leading open-source hardware developer. Kinect is currently available solely for Microsoft’s Xbox 360 and may well someday be extended to the Windows platform. But for New York-based Adafruit Industries, that’s not enough. And that’s why Adafruit – led by MIT Media Lab alum Limor Fried and Make magazine Senior Editor Phillip Torrone – is offering two grand to someone who can figure out how to decouple the hot new device from Microsoft’s gaming machine.” Bah, motion controllers. Evolutionary dead end. A shiny object already on its way out. People play games to unwind, not to look like idiots flailing their arms and legs around.
You’ve obviously never spent a day playing Antigrav or DDR then. I spend all day scrunched over in a chair, why would I do the same when I take a break?
Windows 7 and some of the news regarding Internet Explorer 9 made me think more positive about Microsoft. Oh and don’t forget some of the stuff they released as open source software (no, not that pseudo open source stuff, but the real thing).
However the quotes from Microsoft in this article make me sad. I mean they’d profit from this, because they can sell more. Someone pays the driver form them. But even if that wouldn’t be the case are they saying to want the help from law enforcement to prevent people from using stuff they bought legally with their own money?
Isn’t that completely insane?
Isn’t that like a pencil vendor saying “Yeah, you can use our pens, but if you buy the paper from an other company we will sue you!”
What comes next?
Oh no, you don’t really want to drink that coffee out of a mug sold by an other company!
Attorneys, forwards march!
You’re assuming that they make money off the sales of the Kinect device…
It’s more likely that they are offering it as an incentive to purchase an XB360 over a Wii or PS3 and also the new games that use this device – where they’ll make licensing money.
If someone reverse engineers the device so it can be purchased standalone and used with run-of-the-mill PC games, then Microsoft loses out of the XB360 console and game sales.
I believe I read somewhere that every Kinect sales is profitable. Don’t have the link ready, though.
Even if they make money on them – I seriously doubt they designed it to be simply a “game controller”… They clearly want to give their console platform an edge over the competition, and hardware lock-in is how they intended to do this.
Edit: and to be clear, I’m not encouraging Microsoft to lock this device down, but I’m offering an explanation of *why* they might want to – since there always seem to be confusion about the intentions of doing so.
Edited 2010-11-06 01:03 UTC
And they still will have that distinct “advantage”*. Because you will not be able to connect it to PS3 or Wii.
Being able to connect Wii’s controller to your computer has not hurt the sales of the console. And you can connect it to a PC for a long time now…
Microsoft is as always trying to control, like Sony with Other OS on PS3 and Nintendo with Wii Homebrew…
* – Arguably it’s not an advantage when considering FPS’es and playing Halo with it is a dead end.
Sounds like Apple.
Remember that in sufficiently large companies, departments are largely independent.
So the Windows group (and associated ones) have different ideas on how to run their business (eg. sufficiently open platform instead of app stores) than mobile (Win Phone 7: Locked down in many aspects) or gaming (totally locked down).
Unless top level management has some ideological stance on openness, the various groups can do pretty much whatever they want as long as money flows in and no other group is cannibalized.
This seems to be the case at Microsoft.
well their comments are quite generic. Stating that tampering with the device will not be condoned. I don’t see interfacing with it as tampering…
As much as I hate Microsoft, don’t put words in their mouth…
Bah, motion controllers. Evolutionary dead end. A shiny object already on its way out. People play games to unwind, not to look like idiots flailing their arms and legs around.
first off, kinect!=only motion controller out there. I have complete Move set for ps3 and gaming with it is a bliss. if game controls are done fine, game gets awesome. although i have to agree, something about kinect&gaming just smells wrong. but still, when speaking about motion controlled gaming try wii, try Move, try kinect and then after recap article about motion controllers, otherwise your articles will just prove your evolutionary dead end
second… as much as i hate MS, don’t have XBox and reject kinect way of gaming? i still see productive cheap uses for kinect in other application spaces. like for example making cheap motion animator for 3d animations.
Edited 2010-11-06 13:19 UTC
Or making cheap comments like yours ^^.
Adafruit don’t want to use Kinect to play their own motion controlled games, they want to use its extremely useful depth sensor in robotics projects and whatnot.
It’s nothing to do with games.
And before you ask, no this technology isn’t available anywhere else, at least not for a price even remotely approaching that of Kinect.
Edit: And as far as I know the actual motion tracking is done in the XBox, not the Kinect hardware.
Edited 2010-11-06 15:44 UTC
Adafruit don’t want to use Kinect to play their own motion controlled games, they want to use its extremely useful depth sensor in robotics projects and whatnot.
It’s nothing to do with games.
And before you ask, no this technology isn’t available anywhere else, at least not for a price even remotely approaching that of Kinect.
The HPC took 2,000 PS3 Phats off retail shelves – while cannibalizing potential sales of Sony’s own cell-based HPC product.
Two nails in the coffin for the OtherOS.
Microsoft has its own plans for Kinnect – but right now that doesn’t include subsidizing the hardware costs of your robotics project.
Boohoo, poor Microsoft. They subsidize their hardware (using money earned from forcing people like me to buy a Windows license with every computer even though I don’t want it) in order to drive their competition out of business. But then it’s “unfair” that some consumers use their subsidized hardware for some other purpose than giving Bill Gates a monopoly in gaming software. So it’s time to bring in the lawyers.
Thankfully, Microsoft’s lobbyists bought plenty of US senators and representatives, along with judges and the US Patent & Trade Office. So it should be possible to sue the pants off these open-source hackers, if not put them in jail for life (or maybe the death penalty – why stop with half measures?).
Unfortunately, the big problem is those other countries that refuse to criminalize possession of software not approved by Microsoft. Hopefully, “free-trade agreements” will put these hackers in prison where they belong. After all, a free market can’t exist without a police state to back it up.
Edited 2010-11-07 23:58 UTC
you’re right. original device had hardware processor, but costed around $1000. that processor was enabling motion tracking on PS2. MS simply removed hardware and implemented API stack. basic kinect result is grayscale picture like alpha channel where white means being really close. that was presented long ago by Sony which was considering kinect before MS and after Nintendo. Both Nintendo and Sony rejected it as far as gaming goes. in depth demonstrations can be found on youtube by searching “sony kinect”
…are some Microsoft Surface type applications being possible for less money once these things are hacked for interoperability. I imagine I’d still need several of them for best impact, but imagine being able to use these mounted on the side of a large screen to pull up text and to write with your hands like a large interactive white board!
I seem to recall there being several open source answers to Microsoft Surface back when it was first released, well I imagine having drivers to push the Kinect would go a long way in dropping the cost down even further in those DIY attempts!
–bornagainpenguin