Who'll Be First to Hack Kinect to Run on Second Life?

The Botzone makes a very good point about Kinect, Microsoft's new and much ballyhooed 3D camera control interface for Xbox 360: It's already been hacked and a team of coders have released an open source SDK for running it. One next inevitable step is someone running Second Life via Kinect. After all, that was quickly done with the Wii remote, even though Nintendo's system is much less compatible to SL, than the 360, which is basically a PC which Microsoft hacked into a console. When Kinect was first announced in 2009 (it was called "Natal" back then), I opined that it was technology that would help make 3D virtual worlds mass market. (An insight I first got from Linden Lab early investor Mitch Kapor himself.) So, if you are tinkering with the Kinect and thinking of connecting it to SL, do let me know -- or even better, send me a YouTube video of the connection in action!

Comments

[Arcadia Codesmith]

Well, we know it's possible to do avatar puppeteering with a mocap rig. I'm not certain how they pulled that off, but I imagine it'd be a similar SL app to interpret this input.

[II Singh]

>>After all, that was quickly done with the Wii remote, even though Nintendo's system is much less compatible to SL, than the 360, which is basically a PC which Microsoft hacked into a console

Perhaps you should do some further research into Wii Remote hacking. Your "point" above is rather ill-reasoned bearing in mind how Wii hacks are being implemented. The question of the base platform is more than moot.

[Lum Lumley]

Don't get too excited. The "drivers" for the Kinect only allow it to act as a webcam. The software that interpolates the IR data into a 3D space still isn't there, and reverse engineering that, if it happens, will take some time.

[Zero Calael]

I'll defer to others regarding the technical challenges of converting Kinect to an input device for SL, but as a user, I don't know that I'm particularly interested in this application anyway.

Maybe I'm misunderstanding how the interface would work, but I don't want to actually walk or run in place, or jump around my office to manipulate my avatar. I much prefer relaxing and watching the avatar do the work for me.

But, like I said, maybe I'm missing the point.

[Adeon Writer]

Hey, if I can use it for my PC, I'll buy it. I just don't want to need to buy a Xbox360 just to use it.

[Adeon Writer]

@Zero: I believe the main idea is that it could easily read your face and apply expressions, as well as mouth movements and subtleties while you speak, to your avatar's face. Upper body or even full body motion tracking or might also be possible, but that wouldn't be the focus.

[Stephen Venkman]

as soon as I saw Kinect's first commercial, I thought that would be so great in Second Life. I can see it coming soon.