Obviously, once such a free open driver becomes available, there's nothing technical stopping, for example, Sony from updating PS3 firmware to support the Kinect. Clearly, this would be bad for Microsoft. Microsoft should delay this problem by giving away enough driver code with an academic licence that academics can get the Kinect to play with their robots, before the people with the will and the means to develop their own code do so, and Microsoft loses their intellectual monopoly on the device. This could also easily solve the problem of Microsoft losing money on devices sold below cost to people who have no intention of connecting them to an Xbox and buying games, if any interesting applications are developed before production costs drop - they will own intellectual rights to key parts of the software. If they don't try to sell this to everyone and anyone before someone develops a copy-cat device in a year or two, they're making a huge mistake.
Slashdot Mirror
Obviously, once such a free open driver becomes available, there's nothing technical stopping, for example, Sony from updating PS3 firmware to support the Kinect. Clearly, this would be bad for Microsoft. Microsoft should delay this problem by giving away enough driver code with an academic licence that academics can get the Kinect to play with their robots, before the people with the will and the means to develop their own code do so, and Microsoft loses their intellectual monopoly on the device. This could also easily solve the problem of Microsoft losing money on devices sold below cost to people who have no intention of connecting them to an Xbox and buying games, if any interesting applications are developed before production costs drop - they will own intellectual rights to key parts of the software. If they don't try to sell this to everyone and anyone before someone develops a copy-cat device in a year or two, they're making a huge mistake.