New World Tech: Open Sourced Kinect Projects Transform the Virtual Into an Aspect of the Real

Fat Cat from flight404 on Vimeo

With the open sourcing of Kinect and the explosion of amazing hacking projects built around it (like the one above, which is explained here) I think we're seeing a conceptual transformation of what it means to be virtual, that will soon impact the metaverse in very interesting ways. I'm quite sure we'll see Kinect linked up to 3D virtual worlds soon enough, but perhaps the even more potent applications will discard the idea of a world entirely. Instead, the virtualization will be inextricably linked to real world interaction. For example, why bother bringing your avatar into a separate world, when you can project it on a wall of your living room, like so:

Interactive Puppet Prototype with Xbox Kinect from Theo Watson on Vimeo

(More on that video here.) Interestingly enough, the campaign to open source Kinect was led by Philip Torrone, who for a time, was a huge advocate of hacking Second Life with similar coolness. In any case, let your imagination roam: What Kinect applications would you love to see transform our understanding of the virtual?

Hat tip for the top video: Jason Kottke. Bottom: Extropia DaSilva.

Comments

[Arcadia Codesmith]

"discard the idea of a world entirely"

Maybe for some apps. But let's not pull an Apollo on virtual reality as a whole.

[hujackdastardly]

Exactly. Discard it only for certain purposes that can be handled better in the real world. Integrate with AR and allow avatars to seemless hop through the screen, out of the monitor and into the real world and conversely allow us to immerse into the virtual space when desired. The vr space can be used to model, experiment and create with the possibility to bring some of it into the physical world (via 3D printing for example)