back to article Kinect hacked for OS X

The open source driver for Microsoft's Xbxo 360 Kinect add-on has been ported to Mac OS X - an irony given that Kinect developer PrimeSense originally punted the motion detection tech at Apple. Kinect was released in the UK this week, but debuted in the US a little sooner than that, giving coder AlexP the chance to run Kinect …

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    This Kinect offered to Apple first thing...

    What on Earth did they think Apple would do with it?

    1. noboard
      Flame

      Put it in

      their i<whatever>

      First year would be camera one

      Year two the second camera

      Third Year enable infa red

      For its fourth birthday it gets the mic

      And finally revision 5, the software to make it work

      Simples

    2. Alan Bourke
      Grenade

      Probably make a white version

      and charge 500 sovs for it.

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Jobs Halo

      Real Apple TV

      If Apple produce a physical TV / internet / games device this might have been useful.

      If by Red Tape he means Apple wanted to have exclusivity then I don't blame them. Can you patent the use of 2 cameras, IR + 2 mics ? In most of the world, you can't patent the idea (i.e. use imaging / sound to control a games device) or even the software.

      Jobs Halo because, well, it's controversial on this site to even think Apple make sensible decisions.

    4. Daniel B.

      Pippin 360

      Wel DUUUUH ... they wanted to try another shot into the gaming console business!!!

      Wonder how would Apple fare with a Pippin 360.

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Up

    Interesting...

    Anybody reckon this could be useful tech for home security systems?

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Joke

      Real world use

      I can see some real-world use for this.

      Imagine, using hand gestures to navigate your porn collection for "hands-free viewing"!

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Err...

    When it's said that Cinnect has been hacked, is this more akin to someone having written a driver for it (in itself not such an easy task), or is there a whole load of cracking of encrypted datastreams etc.? I am presuming that there is no physical change to the hardware.

    It's just that I don't really see writing a driver for some hardware as hacking that hardware and I'm curious to know what's actually been done.

    1. ~mico

      Hacking...

      In fact, the act of deciphering an undocumented piece of hardware, reverse-engineering its command and control codes and decoding its data stream, and writing a driver for it from scratch is the true, original meaning of "hacking".

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      As Mico said

      You may also find this an interesting read if you're interested in the true definition of 'hacker'.

      http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/hacker-howto.html#what_is

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        @AC

        I know that putting together a driver for an undocumented piece of hardware is hacking and I am very impressed that this has been achieved so quickly. The problem that I have is that, while I know that this is hacking the device, I just associate hacking hardware devices with opening them up and getting out the soldering iron. It's probably due to a background in engineering and electronics and I certainly don't want to belittle what this guy has done.

        I'd really like to know how this has been achieved so quickly, as even reverse engineering a driver would seem to be an impressive task, but if the datastream were to be encoded or obfuscated in some way, this is a far more impressive task.

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    well

    now that it's been revealed to cost about £35 in reality, the more people buying them for £130 the better!

    all the previous complaints were about the hardware being sold at a loss, and subsidised by games that people wouldn't buy for linux/osx/etc. Now it's revealed that every sale is a significant gain, no matter the use, I don't see the problem.

    1. Giles Jones Gold badge

      Not quite

      Why do people always forget to factor in the development costs?

      Sure, the parts cost £35, but do you think people work for free?

      Y'know the people who created the design, designed the hardware, PCB, casing, packaging, software, advertising, programming API and so on. They all get paid, some more than others.

      A DVD costs pence to make, but the content costs millions to film, edit and so on.

      1. Francis Boyle Silver badge

        Logic Fail

        Development costs are sunk costs - having paid for the development it's in Microsoft's interest to ship as many units as possible given that they get a good part of £95 every time they sell one.

        1. Seanie Ryan
          Megaphone

          logic fail fail

          "Development costs are sunk costs"

          every cost needs to be factored in when looking to get an ROI.

          "given that they get a good part of £95 every time they sell one"

          shipping, retail packaging, cost of manufacture, retailers margin, advertising etc are for Free now?

          god lads, can people think even a *small* bit beyond what they read

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