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Send Kinect Gesture Recognition Data Over Infrared

An anonymous reader writes with this snippet from Kinect Hacks: "Being able to send gestural data captured from your Kinect to another device via your computer of IR is incredible. You can send gesture recognition data to any piece of hardware that uses IR signals, such as your television, receiver, cable box or X10 extenders. Anything that reads IR signals can now be controlled by simply using gestures to control the devices. Absolutely amazing. The developer wrote custom code that works with his Kinect sensor plugged into his Mac Mini. The code is integrated with OpenNI which detects the user's skeleton and has specific gestures pre-programmed to control his TV in order to turn it off and on along with changing the volume on his digital receiver. Other gestures include the ability to change to the next and previous channel."

49 comments

  1. It's Microsoft Friday on Slashdot by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Three Microsoft-promoting articles in rapid succession. Maybe you should rename the site to Backslashdot.

    1. Re:It's Microsoft Friday on Slashdot by v1 · · Score: 1

      It's just going to rebrand itself as "Microsoft Slashdot"

      --
      I work for the Department of Redundancy Department.
    2. Re:It's Microsoft Friday on Slashdot by geminidomino · · Score: 1

      Judging by the time stamp of your post, I'm pretty sure it's not "Friday" anywhere in the world anymore...

    3. Re:It's Microsoft Friday on Slashdot by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      It's almost like Microsoft is one of the biggest technology companies on Earth and has multiple products or something

    4. Re:It's Microsoft Friday on Slashdot by davester666 · · Score: 1

      More like "Microsoft Live Slashdot".

      --
      Sleep your way to a whiter smile...date a dentist!
    5. Re:It's Microsoft Friday on Slashdot by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Ok, I can't believe I have to explain this, but Friday is the day shops sell off perishable merchandise on discount if they don't work weekends. Too obscure maybe, but who cares.

  2. More Clippy Help by ExploHD · · Score: 4, Funny

    Clippy: "I see that you're jerking off, would you like me to bring up some porn?"

    1. Re:More Clippy Help by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

      Clippy: "I see that you're je... err let me go get you a towel."

    2. Re:More Clippy Help by zamboni1138 · · Score: 2

      And of course you say yes, which is when Clippy brings up these pics.

    3. Re:More Clippy Help by MyGirlFriendsBroken · · Score: 1

      They are quite frankly just plain disturbing, especially the first one. I would advise people only to follow the links if they are of sound mind and solid constitution.

      --
      If you read a speed reading book, does it take you less time to read the second half?
    4. Re:More Clippy Help by iamhassi · · Score: 1
      --
      my karma will be here long after I'm gone
  3. Meh. by zippthorne · · Score: 1

    Call me when you can drill sign-language on it.

    --
    Can you be Even More Awesome?!
  4. The amazing future by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Where a device that costs $149 can be hacked to ..... let you channel surf even more easily. Then you can make a blog all about hacking a product and promote yourself to get more attention than a third world development charity. This is what hacking is all about.

  5. Oblig. HItchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by zindorsky · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The machine was rather difficult to operate. For years radios had been operated by means of pressing buttons and turning dials; then as the technology became more sophisticated the controls were made touch-sensitive--you merely had to brush the panels with your fingers; now all you had to do was wave your hand in the general direction of the components and hope. It saved a lot of muscular expenditure, of course, but meant that you had to sit infuriatingly still if you wanted to keep listening to the same program.

    --
    If the geiger counter does not click, the coffee, she is not thick.
  6. Re:Good Grief... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    So....since the article also mentions a Mac mini, is this sort of like a Steve Jobs/Bill Gates and User threesome? Thats a lot of sticky...good thing its hands free.

  7. Re:Good Grief... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    How many "Microsoft technology make's me cum all over myself" stories have there been in the last week or so?

    Oh, that's the up and down hand motion to change volume. Unfortunately, when watching porn, the volume has a tendency of continually fluctuating rapidly.

  8. Oh yeah by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I also wrote a program that took peripheral input an then used the irda port to control IR devices! It was a palmpilot. and 1998.

    Lol at the sensationalising of this trivial application

    1. Re:Oh yeah by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I also wrote a program that took peripheral input an then used the irda port to control IR devices! It was a palmpilot. and 1998.

      Lol at the sensationalising of this trivial application

      How good was your skeleton and gesture recognition? It is what you can use it for that is interesting here.

  9. Microsoft Infection by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Wow, "troll"??? The Microsoft Shills are working hard... Submarine posts long enough to get mod points, and Profit!

  10. I get it, but it ain't there yet... by Scubaraf · · Score: 3, Funny

    Sure you have to do a complicated dance routine to flip through channels and change the volume, but maybe, one day soon, we'll be able to operate basic television controls from across the room using only a single thumb!

    Wake when my TV can figure out what I want to watch and puts it on before my ass hits the couch.

    1. Re:I get it, but it ain't there yet... by Haedrian · · Score: 2

      Just leave it on the porn channel.

      Problem solved.

    2. Re:I get it, but it ain't there yet... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      They have that; it's called a wife

    3. Re:I get it, but it ain't there yet... by Cant+use+a+slash+wtf · · Score: 1

      Even better. WITH OUT MINDS!

    4. Re:I get it, but it ain't there yet... by ieatcookies · · Score: 1

      You mean before your pants hit the floor.

    5. Re:I get it, but it ain't there yet... by TheGhostface · · Score: 1

      Wake when my TV can figure out what I want to watch and puts it on before my ass hits the couch.

      Actually I wrote something similiar like this 2 years ago when I was still watching regular TV (as in Zapping through the channels).

      Basically you pressed a button which triggers a script running on a nslu2 slug, which then gets a list of everything that is currently on TV (RSS Feed from the internet) and then filters it down based on some rules you specified.

      First it tried to find TV Shows like Simpsons, Family Guy, American Dad etc. if nothing was found it filtered the running movies by starting time (so you don't end up with a movie that almost over), and a number of genres (i.e. action/horror/drama) and imdb ratings (must be above 6.5) usually resulting in something I would be interested in watching.

      Finally it switched the channel by sending an IR signal using an USB IR Transmitter.

    6. Re:I get it, but it ain't there yet... by maxwell+demon · · Score: 1

      Even better. WITH OUT MINDS!

      Freudian slip? :-)

      --
      The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
    7. Re:I get it, but it ain't there yet... by Scubaraf · · Score: 1

      Love it! I'm in for one.

      Combine it with the kinect so all you have to do is sit down and I'll buy two.

  11. MS Buys Out "Geek Net".... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Fuck all this Microsoft shit. Slashdot is now OWNED.

  12. Tell me how you make this easy. by westlake · · Score: 1

    The machine was rather difficult to operate.

    The last of Adams' books was published in 1992.

    In 2011 your Livio NPR or Pandora desktop Internet radio can tune 20,000 stations - but has a small screen and a bare five presets.

  13. Overrated by metrix007 · · Score: 0

    Gestures are overrated in browsers or elsewhere. It's a nice gimmick, but when it comes down to it a good old fashioned button is a lot simpler and quicker.

    --
    If you ignore ACs because they are anonymous - you're an idiot.
    1. Re:Overrated by dlsso · · Score: 2

      If he's talking about computers: mod parent down. Anyone who knows how to use them will tell you mouse gestures are far and away the most efficient way to browse the net. Especially if you use lots of tabs and sift through large numbers of pages.

    2. Re:Overrated by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      IMHO it isn't even a nice gimmick.

    3. Re:Overrated by camperdave · · Score: 1

      A button is a lot simpler and quicker, true. However, your body is a lot harder to lose than the remote.

      --
      When our name is on the back of your car, we're behind you all the way!
    4. Re:Overrated by metrix007 · · Score: 1

      Heh. No.

      --
      If you ignore ACs because they are anonymous - you're an idiot.
  14. Re:Good Grief... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I'm going through a book on LINQ right now and it's almost making me cum all over myself.

  15. light me up by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    which detects the user's skeleton

    Sounds like the TSA.

  16. Impressive but no game changer... by Ray_Cohen · · Score: 1

    Only once this kind of technology feels like using an iPad from a distance will it actually be useful. Until then this is no "game changer". That said, the combination of technologies that makes the present project work is impressive and all the best to the developer.

    1. Re:Impressive but no game changer... by deetoy · · Score: 1

      It is and will be a game changer for the disabled and environments where the users is not free to use their hands. Surgical and machinery operations spring to mind. Now that proof of concept is complete, the prototyping to production timeframe will be short. The interesting part will be providing a failsafe algorythm to ensure interpretation of the users intent is accurate.

    2. Re:Impressive but no game changer... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      yes but as a project it's so boring even on summary, ok you get signals from your gestures and then you pipe them your ir outputter. not a big deal, not worth slashdot. if you know you can hook up kinect to a pc then you know you can do this - and a whole lot of other things. I would NOT find it interesting article if someone used kinect to steer a real car. of course it can be done but what's the point, it's as exciting as making it drive with a joypad.

  17. copypasta from the article by Gothmolly · · Score: 1

    Timothy, you douche, you're an editor. EDIT. Don't simply take copypasta and put it on the front page of Slashdot.

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    I want to delete my account but Slashdot doesn't allow it.
    1. Re:copypasta from the article by /dev/trash · · Score: 1

      Why not?

  18. Why no audio-driven interface? by Nareau · · Score: 2

    I'm still waiting for someone to develop hardware that will let me turn my TV/lamp/etc. on and off simply by clapping.

    1. Re:Why no audio-driven interface? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Kinect has audio-driven interface.This http://123kinect.com/kinect-developer-diary-voice-4/ to control a power relay should be an interesting hack if possible.

  19. Waiting for the Asus Xtion by perrin · · Score: 1

    While Kinect looks really cool, I am impatiently awaiting the Asus Xtion, which is the same hardware as the Kinect except it is not an XBox accessory, and you do not have to give any money to Microsoft for it. The developer version , the Xtion Pro, should be out any time now according to their official schedule. There is also now an OpenNI API for communicating with Kinect family devices, which is available for Linux as well. Hobby robotics vision never seemed as promising as now.

  20. gamechanger by digitalsushi · · Score: 1

    it's called a gamechanger cause you dont need an apparatus any longer to control a device.

    --
    slashdot: where everyone yells sarcastic metaphors to themselves to understand the issue
  21. Gesture Recognition by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    So this is Kinect gesture recognition and an IR transmitter sending pre-defined commands triggered by recognition events. This is not "sending kinect motion over IR". Maybe the gesture recognition is great, but TFS and TFA are misleading. Also, how many times can TFA say "amazing"?

  22. LARP Control by MacroMegaMan · · Score: 1

    Anyone thought of using this to control special effects for a LARP? Imagine being able to actually see the magical effects you were using on someone...