
Microsoft confirms Kinect hackers to get official developer kit - mjfern
http://www.pocket-lint.com/news/38701/microsoft-kinect-sdk-officially-confirmed
======
oldstrangers
I think this is a great step for Microsoft. I believe they've learned a lot
from the good PR that Android has received due in part to Androids large and
outspoken developer community. I'm sure Microsoft has also noticed a lot of
the negativity surrounding Motorola and their decision to lock down boot
loaders (effectively removing any developers chance to mess with the phone).
That and the mess that Sony has created by suing the people who hacked the
PS3.

So, kudos to Microsoft.

~~~
wslh
It's ironic, but Microsoft almost always supported products that reverse
engineered their software. One of our products was based on internals research
and we received a proposal from their QA team to test our product in Windows
7.

If I remember well, the Samba team had issues in the past with this practice,
and also the activesync protocol is jealously protected (and licensed to
Google).

~~~
eyeareque
Microsoft started to help the Samba team because of a lawsuit, not because
they felt like being nice to OSS:

[http://www.informationweek.com/news/software/enterprise_apps...](http://www.informationweek.com/news/software/enterprise_apps/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=205101451)

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daimyoyo
This is a great move by Microsoft. Not only will they get free development on
their platform, this will cement the Kinect as the next major gaming device.
If only Sony could see the benefits of allowing an open SDK on their platform.

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daniel_reetz
Related: Adafruit just pointed out that Johnny Lee was behind the original
Kinect bounty-

[http://www.adafruit.com/blog/2011/02/21/johhny-lee-was-
behin...](http://www.adafruit.com/blog/2011/02/21/johhny-lee-was-behind-the-
kinect-bounty-contest-with-a-little-help-from-us/)

------
Bossman
Very happy about this. Was thinking of picking up a Kinect when the original
hackers made a USB driver and started an SDK. Decided to wait and I'm so glad
Microsoft is actually pushing it like this. Would love to see it all tied in
to Visual Studio and/or XNA.

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nitrogen
I wonder how their motion tracking compares with PrimeSense's OpenNI and NITE.
Does anybody know if this SDK provides full access to player tracking and
gesture information, or is it basically like libfreenect, allowing access to
the raw data?

~~~
dgabriel
I am guessing it will be more like the OpenNI drivers, since PrimeSense is
already a MSFT partner.

~~~
nitrogen
It was my understanding that Microsoft doesn't use PrimeSense's gesture and
motion tracking software, but instead wrote their own. Unfortunately, I can't
remember where I read that.

~~~
dgabriel
I googled a bit, but wasn't able to find any corroborating evidence. Please
post it here when/if you find it. In any case, it will be interesting to
compare the APIs when MS releases theirs.

~~~
martin_k
I remember Ilan Spillinger (<http://www.xbox.com/en-US/Press/Corporate/ilan-
spillinger>) saying something like that at a talk he gave recently- Microsoft
Research played a huge role in the development, iirc.

/edit: This talk has some info about it
<http://research.microsoft.com/apps/video/dl.aspx?id=139295> (MSR guy starts
around 1h00m)

------
ukdm
Microsoft Research post on the matter: [http://research.microsoft.com/en-
us/news/features/kinectforw...](http://research.microsoft.com/en-
us/news/features/kinectforwindowssdk-022111.aspx)

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sudonim
This is great news! Would there be interest from hackers to participate in a
competition to spur open-sourced innovation for the Kinect when the SDK comes
out?

~~~
dgabriel
There's already a $20,000 prize for a natural interaction based browser:
<http://www.openni.org/developerschallenge>

There are probably more.

~~~
nutmeg
The competition closed today :-(

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soulclap
More 'coolness' from Microsoft. While I never 'hated' them, this is really
feeling odd. Hope they'll stay that way and can make Windows Phone attractive
as well.

Hell, if they keep on like this, maybe even Windows will be 'cool' one day. So
confusing!

------
the_unknown
As an app developer this is great news... can't wait to see some of the
innovative uses that come out of this. The demo video released earlier this
week of kinect/windows phone 7 integration was a great first step.

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Newky
Great to hear news like this from microsoft, I think real kudos is deserved
for moves like this.

No matter what sort of benefit they get from it.

Probably too much to ask that they release the SDK cross platform :)

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sjtgraham
This is essentially free R&D for Microsoft. No brainer.

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mikx
The kinect and MS is going to play an interesting role in NUI. The surface 2
is also still on the way. It's exciting to see that MS still innovates.

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rbanffy
No word on licensing. I wonder if it will allow code to be ported to non-
Windows platforms.

And prevent Microsoft from suing whoever tries that.

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ylem
This is cool! I have some equipment at work that I'd love to take kinect
images of and broadcast :>

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dgabriel
This is awesome. I've been playing with the openkinect and OpenNI drivers, and
it gets pretty painful.

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shriphani
Apps for the living room. WHEE !

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ascendant
This act of coolness on the part of Microsoft makes my head hurt. I can't
correlate "Microsoft" with "smart decision" anymore. I need an advil.

On a serious note: this is a really good way to stick it to Sony too, since
they're going after GeoHot and making themselves look like assholes doing it.

~~~
damoncali
Nah - they'll just change the rules later and try to take 30%...

Good move, Microsoft. Apple, are you seeing this? This is how you get people
to use your stuff.

~~~
endtime
I dislike Apple as much as anyone, but I don't think they really need advice
on getting people to use their products.

~~~
damoncali
I love Apple - I have tons of their crap. But the genius they have
historically shown at attracting developers has been lacking of late. And of
all the competitors to pick up that mantle, Microsoft?

Competition is great.

~~~
endtime
The HN crowd might be turned off, but they have six or seven digits of apps in
the app store.

