

 Microsoft now says it’s “inspired’ by community finding new uses for Kinect - th0ma5
http://www.adafruit.com/blog/2010/11/19/microsoft-now-says-its-inspired-by-community-finding-new-uses-for-kinect/

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mlinsey
Microsoft is not a monolithic entity. People in different parts of the company
have legitimately different agendas, which is also a source of lots of
Microsoft's problems. I have no reason to doubt that that Alex Kipman and
Shannon Loftis were being completely genuine, but it also wouldn't surprise me
if MS' legal department tried legal action later on anyway. In a company with
stronger leadership at the top, you might see a more consistent response (or
at least a clear break when policies change), but I wouldn't expect that from
MS.

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hvs
Just to preempt the "damned if they do, damned if they don't" type of comments
that usually follow something like this, I'd like to say: "Thank you,
Microsoft, for doing the right thing. Next time, try to keep your lawyers away
from your press office so their frothing at the mouth can be contained before
you can craft a competent response."

~~~
simonk
I think its all how you present it, they just went along as they had never had
said any of the previous statements. If they said sorry we made a mistake, I'm
sure there would be a lot more praise for Microsoft.

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mquander
God forbid they actually open-source their _own_ drivers, and save the
community a shitload of work, if this is so magically inspiring for them.

~~~
sgk284
In all fairness, Microsoft spent years buying up every major researcher in
artificial vision and many other fields(to the point that Universities started
complaining)and spent tens of millions developing this tech. It's something
that Sony and Nintendo won't be able to duplicate without lots of money and at
least another few years of R&D.

I mean sure things can be reverse engineered, but open sourcing this would
instantly put Sony and Nintendo in a position to simply make their own
hardware and call it a day. I'd love to see the drivers open sourced, because
that's where the really interesting things are going on... but that's simply
not realistically going to happen.

Microsoft really moved the field forward on this one, I completely understand
their desire to make some of that money back.

~~~
zacharycohn
Sony already released their "Move" system, which many argue is better than
Kinect..

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DannoHung
Uhm, correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't Move work on completely different
principles?

I mean, I thought the point of move was the six axis accelerometer combined
with the sensor picking up the ball of light?

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jerf
I think it's a difference in perspective. The Microsoft XBox 360 teams hears
"We want to hack the Kinect" and pretty much leaps to "We wish to see if we
can somehow exploit the Kinect to crack the box wide open and make game piracy
possible." It really doesn't hurt Microsoft much for you to plug your Kinect
into your (statistically-probably Windows) PC and use it without modification,
and once they worked out that's what was happening they probably simmered down
a lot. Given the novelty of the Kinect, I would think their optimal strategy
would be to encourage Kinect experimentation to the utmost; the faster the
"hackers" discover great, compelling ways to use the Kinect, the faster
Microsoft can productize them.

But they'll still come down like a bag of bricks on anybody who manages to
crack XBox security with one.

~~~
jonhohle
I would guess that Kinect, unlike most peripherals, but like most consoles, is
sold at or below cost and the profit is made in games sales. If people can use
Kinect without buying any games, they reduce the amount of profit Microsoft is
able to bring into an already low margin area of their company.

~~~
jonhendry
But that also feeds the buzz about the product, which is useful given
Microsoft's lack of nerd cred lately.

And some portion of people buying a Kinect for hacks will end up buying an
Xbox and games, as well, for when they're not hacking, or for the kids, or
whatever.

After all, if they're interested in the Kinect, they'll likely be interested
in trying other peoples' applications of the technology - which may include
Xbox games.

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zacharycohn
There's an important distinction between people "modifying the Kinect" and
people writing drivers that let other devices USE the Kinect.

Not saying that the first one should still be banned, but I think this new
announcement is more of a clarification that they're okay with people writing
drivers and using it for puppets/roombas/their own purposes, as long as their
not hacking the Kinect itself.

~~~
Groxx
Unless they release full-featured, official drivers, how do they think such
drivers get written?

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pyre
USBus snooping?

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cryptoz
They should take back that public statement about getting law enforcement
involved, then. Sure, they say they are "inspired" but it still stands that
they will ask the government to throw you in jail if you hack around with the
Kinect.

This PR is bullshit until they open up and say they won't try their hardest to
send you to jail.

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marcusbooster
I'm sure they are "inspired" by the interest in this device. I'd never buy an
Xbox, but I'd get one of these just to hook it up to my computer and play
around. Why would they not want to take my money?

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lanstein
Because they're probably losing money on the hardware.

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jrockway
How much do they lose if it just sits on the shelf?

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mechanical_fish
The premise of this question is likely wrong, but in an enlightening way: The
Kinect looks poised to be a big hit this holiday season, which is to say "over
the next thirty days". There may well not be enough inventory to meet demand,
and every Kinect that is bought by a hacker is a Kinect that doesn't also
serve to drive the sale of XBox hardware and XBox games during the peak game-
buying season of the year.

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barake
They moved 1 million units in the first 10 days. Apparently on track for 5
million before year's end.

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joegaudet
Total aside, the resistor turing test at the bottom of the page was awesome.

That is all.

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xentronium
While taking their own words back is stupid, why not open-source the platform?
They're selling kinect with positive margin and with open platform they will
do even more.

~~~
sgk284
Because then Sony and Nintendo could simply make their own hardware and use
the drivers with it. The most interesting bits of Kinect aren't in the
hardware... they're in the software, and Microsoft spent tens of millions of
dollars and quite a few years developing it.

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daeken
They don't need to open their analysis, they just need to open the interface
for the device itself -- the work the community has already partially done.
It'll happen eventually anyway (soon, most likely), so it has a minimal
downside for them.

~~~
trafficlight
The OpenKinect project has achieved a lot in the last week.

<https://github.com/OpenKinect/libfreenect/>

<http://groups.google.com/group/openkinect>

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robchez
Wouldn't be surprised if new official applications of the Kinect come directly
from observing what the most popular hacked applications are.

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th0ma5
full transcript (thanks Miguel)
[http://www.techflash.com/seattle/2010/11/microsoft-kinect-
no...](http://www.techflash.com/seattle/2010/11/microsoft-kinect-not-hacked-
left.html)

