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Official MS Kinect SDK Coming to Windows

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the i-know-what-i'm-hacking-first dept.

fredr1k writes "Microsoft figured there is some movement in the Kinect hacking scene. They have now announced a Kinect SDK for Windows. (Though only for Academics & Enthusiasts). 'Ever since the November launch of Kinect for Xbox 360, enthusiasts and academic researchers alike have expressed their excitement and intense interest in the possibilities created by the products ability to enable users to bring games and entertainment to life without using a controller. While Microsoft plans to release a commercial version at a later date, this SDK will be a starter kit to make it simpler for the academic research and enthusiast communities to create rich natural user interfaces using Kinect technology.'"

18 of 84 comments (clear)

  1. Not a MS fan, but... by flogger · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I'm not a huge MS fan, but doing things this way for the "Hacker" community is a lot better than Sony's response to what hacking has been going on with the PS3. Of course, any academicians that create really good stuff will surely find their work inside of the next MS update/release without any credit given or payment. However, that is better than a cease and desist order followed up with a lawsuit.

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    "First things first -- but not necessarily in that order"
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    1. Re:Not a MS fan, but... by slim · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I'm not a huge MS fan, but doing things this way for the "Hacker" community is a lot better than Sony's response to what hacking has been going on with the PS3.

      "Better than Sony" isn't much of a target, to be fair.

    2. Re:Not a MS fan, but... by Sockatume · · Score: 2

      They had a segment about Kinect hacking on Science Friday last November. One of the researchers complained that the Wii Remote had become a ubiquitous tool in some fields because it packed a lot of useful sensors and a wireless connection into a cheap, sturdy gizmo, but Nintendo just weren't interested in supporting them. The MS spokesperson used this as an opportunity to wax lyrical about how they'd deliberately not engineered any barriers to talking with the hardware, and their plans for the research SDK. Whether it's cultural or not, it's obvious that Microsoft's keen to capitalise on it.

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      No kidding!!! What do you say at this point?
    3. Re:Not a MS fan, but... by Hatta · · Score: 2

      It's easier for MS to take a hands-off approach, as the end result sells hardware and has no impact on the XBOX360's platform security, whereas on the PS3 it is a direct attack on the platform's ability to keep the closed environment that publishers demand.

      I agree that this hack isn't really relevant to Sony's actions, but the Xbox360 has been cracked wide open for some time. Microsoft has handled this much better than Sony.

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      Give me Classic Slashdot or give me death!
    4. Re:Not a MS fan, but... by tlhIngan · · Score: 2

      They had a segment about Kinect hacking on Science Friday last November. One of the researchers complained that the Wii Remote had become a ubiquitous tool in some fields because it packed a lot of useful sensors and a wireless connection into a cheap, sturdy gizmo, but Nintendo just weren't interested in supporting them. The MS spokesperson used this as an opportunity to wax lyrical about how they'd deliberately not engineered any barriers to talking with the hardware, and their plans for the research SDK. Whether it's cultural or not, it's obvious that Microsoft's keen to capitalise on it.

      Wow, some nice spin by Microsoft PR - the real reason there's no encryption and whatnot on Kinect is far more obvious - the Xbox360's USB 2 isn't that fast. That's partly why the IR depth sensor only works at QVGA and the RGB at VGA - there's just too much data flowing through the system to support 4 microphones and 2 VGA cameras at 30/60fps (not sure what the real framerate is).

      Microsoft's supposed to be improving the Xbox360's USB stack to get closer to its theoretical limit (45MB/sec?) so it can set the IR depth sensor to VGA as well to improve depth sensing fidelity.

      That's the reason reason why there's no encryption - the datarate is too high for the Xbox360.

    5. Re:Not a MS fan, but... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2

      Nice FUD, but if you knew anything about encryption you'd know there's no explicit overhead in data size. There might be a negligible change due to key exchange or protocol details, but when you AES encrypt a big data block, it comes out the same size as it went in.

  2. Re:" to make it simpler for the academic research. by mcvos · · Score: 2

    That's what I thought. The company I work for has some interesting ideas for using the Kinect, but we were hoping for a good open source api. I'm afraid we're exactly the kind of people MS wants to see big money from.

  3. Re:" to make it simpler for the academic research. by kevinNCSU · · Score: 2

    Well, that would be the idea behind the release of "a commercial version at a later date", to make revenue. Maybe you should at least read the summary before flaming the editor. Of course feel free to comment on the article itself with just reading the headline since this is Slashdot after all ;)

    The release to academia (I assume through MSDN Academic Alliance?) is pretty cool. I know as a college student I had access to all that stuff and I downloaded everything I could off of it (Different versions of windows, IDE's, SQL servers) since you get to legally use it for non commercial stuff even afterwords. Granted Microsoft's incentive to do this is surely revenue based at the root but whatever, that's what companies do.

  4. Microsoft is very open on this tech by Drakkenmensch · · Score: 2

    If someone had suggested hacking the Move for making cool new stuff, they'd probably already had all their computers seized while hordes of Sony lawyers darkened the skies above their home.

    1. Re:Microsoft is very open on this tech by matt_gaia · · Score: 2

      Oh, you mean something like this? Now granted, the prosecution still messed up the case, but the gist of it is MS went after modders as well. Chances are, any console make will go after someone distributing how to hack their system. If you're caught using said hack, they'll ban you; if you're distributing it, they'll send the lawyers. In general they don't care... it's all about their revenue stream from licensing.

  5. Re:We are being kinectically assimilated by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    LOL...I dont consider myself strongly pro or anti-Microsoft. However, I get such a kick at the idiot Microsoft haters on Slashdot who can't even admit when Microsoft does something right. If this were another link related to Windows security flaws there'd be 700 posts about Bill Gates being the anti-christ.

    Slashdot users are supposed to be smart; smarter than childish fanboys/fangirls.

  6. Re:We are being kinectically assimilated by Richard_at_work · · Score: 2

    Would you rather they clamped down on you?

    What is it with people feeling entitled to everything right now, this second, immediately? Do MS really owe you this SDK?

    Of course this is a good thing. Sheesh.

  7. Re:" to make it simpler for the academic research. by petermgreen · · Score: 2

    AIUI it the real issue is that the company MS bought the tech off sells very similar tech for a MUCH higher pricetag for industrial use. So they are sensitive about what uses the kinect is put to.

    It's kind of like when NI and lego collaborate to produced products aimed at kids based on labview they have to make sure they are sufficiantly crippled that they don't threaten labview's market.

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    note: i'm known as plugwash most places but i screwd up registering that here somehow in the past and now can't register
  8. Re:" to make it simpler for the academic research. by Richard_at_work · · Score: 2

    You might want to check the licensing on the stuff you downloaded - with MSDN and Technet you can use the software for testing and development, but not for production, commercial or otherwise (other than specific licenses, such as Visual Studio, Office etc, but those are enumerated in the agreement).

    I'd be very surprised if the Adademic licensing is any different - infact, your rights may expire once you leave the educational institution.

    So if you are using that software, I'd double check your license :)

  9. Re:Get real people by h4rr4r · · Score: 2

    Sony offered an "other OS" feature and people just used it as a way to hack into the PS3. If people used it for the original intent of innovation and invention then it would still exist today, but it only takes one dumbass to ruin it for the rest of us.

    Lots of people used it for the original purpose, the only real hacking was to get full access to the hardware. Sony is not your mother, you own your PS3 they should not be able to take back what they sold you. Sony was not forced by some bad person to do this, they chose to do this. I do not pirate games, but idiocy like the stuff you are spouting makes me want to start.

  10. late to their own party by danomatika · · Score: 2

    Although I'm glad they aren't pulling a Sony with the hardware, saying "enthusiasts and academic researchers alike have expressed their excitement and intense interest" fails to recognize that those enthusiasts and researchers not only built a cross platform open source driver but have been pumping out projects left and right since November. They missed the boat as far as I'm concerned and "maybe" putting out a Windows-only SDK is too little too late. It would be better for them to sponsor freenect or OpenNI then to offer a platform specific 3rd solution. From what I've heard, their drivers were not so hot to begin with ...

  11. Re:We are being kinectically assimilated by mikejuk · · Score: 3, Interesting

    This isn't a good thing and it might even be a bad thing. There already is a semi official SDK from PrimeSense the people who made the Kinect hardware for MS - it just needs a tweek to work with the Kinect (an XML file). They also supply "middleware" to do jobs like body tracking and we have to wait to see what the MS SDK includes. FInally there is the interesting distinction between the non-comercial and commercial SDK - does this mean that anything I create using the non-commercial SDK can't be used commerciall and are they going to charge for the commercial SDK and take a cut from any apps that result? The point is that the semi-official SDK is open source so why bother with the Microsoft SDK with strings attached? I wrote all this up about a week ago but it was ignored by Slashdoters - shame on you :-) http://www.i-programmer.info/news/91-hardware/2030-official-kinect-sdk-who-needs-it.html But it is clear that this is an attempt by MS to take over the Kinect party.

  12. Yo Microsoft! by fuzzyfuzzyfungus · · Score: 4, Informative

    Yo, Microsoft, I'm really happy for you, and I'mma let you finish; but the Kinect SDK has been in multiplaform release for months now, months now!