

Kinect Hackers Are Changing the Future of Robotics - spottiness
http://www.wired.com/magazine/2011/06/mf_kinect/

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apu
BTW it's not just the hardware on the Kinect that's so great...the computer
vision component is simply incredible and Andrew Blake's team at MS Research
Cambridge deserves the kudos on that.

They're solving a _very_ tough problem and doing it really well.

Anecdotally, as I was interviewing for various academic positions this year,
_everyone_ had a few Kinect projects they were working on. This thing has
really sparked an enormous resurgence of interest in stereo/3d-related vision
research!

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qdot76367
Hi. I'm Kyle Machulis, one of the leads on the OpenKinect project mentioned in
the article. If anyone's got any questions on where things are going with the
project, I'm happy to answer. I also did a talk on the project at Maker Faire
that was recorded:

<http://fora.tv/2011/05/21/Kyle_Machulis_OpenKinect>

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bh42222
Right now industrial robots capable of performing complex tasks which require
visual processing are very, VERY expensive.

I don't recall exact prices for that one that de-bones ham, but I do recall it
was significant chunk of change.

Do you think your work could result in drastically cheaper industrial robots?

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qdot76367
Willow Garage (<http://www.willowgarage.com/>) has been doing tons of work
with the kinect for all sorts of robotics use via their ROS platform, all BSD
licensed. That'll provide the software/algorithms needed to get the camera
integrated into neat robotics work.

As for whether or not we'll see the kinect on Jarvis's next bung dropper,
well, we may want slightly more hardened technology directing roboknives than
the camera you set next to your TV so you can pet virtual kittens (this
statement excludes anyone involved in Survival Research Labs). But the idea is
there, sure.

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lloeki
It sounds like how the PS3 commoditized parallel processing thanks to its
cheap Cell processor. In a few days it shattered all records of Seti@Home (or
was it Folding@home?), and researchers bought PS3s (sometimes building
impressive clusters) for all kind of computations.

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Cherian_Abraham
Take something that sells for $10 and find a way to offer it for $1. And not
before long, you can expect an ecosystem to flourish.

Technology getting commoditized is a beautiful thing.

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Shenglong
_And a company called ThriXXX built a rudimentary sex game that allows players
to rub women’s body parts with a creepy disembodied hand._

I was going to ask what the market for this was... but when I compared it to
some of the other stuff in that genre that already exists, I guess it isn't
_that_ much of a stretch.

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qdot76367
Hands free control is very important in some industries.

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joejohnson
That was a great article. Does anyone know how difficult it is to get the
projects mentioned up and running on a Mac?

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qdot76367
OS X is a bit difficult in that it requires a patched libusb, but we provide
the patch along with instructions to build in the software. Worse comes to
worse, visit #openkinect on Freenode and there's lots of people that can help
out in real time.

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danielson
Related: Jennifer Kahn, Profiles, "The Visionary," The New Yorker, July 11,
2011, p. 46 <
[http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2011/07/11/110711fa_fact_...](http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2011/07/11/110711fa_fact_kahn)
>

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danielson
Here's a pdf:
[https://docs.google.com/viewer?pid=explorer&srcid=0ByF_2...](https://docs.google.com/viewer?pid=explorer&srcid=0ByF_20UfOVemMWE0MDcyNzEtMmJiMy00YTNkLThkMWYtZTU2NDhhNjFmYWU3)

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danielson
_What Jaron Lanier Thinks of Technology Now_

