Hacked Kinect Allows Manipulation of 3D Video in Real Time

[Prince Regent]

Very impressive

Well thats that then I now have got to buy a kinect.

 

[Wicky_42]

Rig it up to remember the shapes it sees, then you could construct complete 3D models by imaging them from real life with the camera - there's no reason, say, why it couldn't remember what his face looks like from the front when he turns away, or if he turned the other way what the other side looked like.

Pretty sweet demonstration though, shows what the tech is capable of, and also what the limitations of the resolution are - notice how much the background was spiking? I'm guessing you'd need to average out all the noise from each individual point to make a smoother imagine, but you'd lose detail doing that...

yeah that would be great, you turn around a few times and presto you have a fully rendered 3d image of yourself that moves at the same time you do.

As for that matter if it could remember where it is in relation to the room its in you could use it a bit like a scanner and have a 3d image of your entire room.

after that you could get it to recognize what the objects are in the room.

Finally it could then use the available space and objects in a room convert them to look like other objects of similar shape on screen and create a game around it tailored to your room.

edit: to go one step further you could then get your representation to wear different clothes so that you can for instance look like a space marine or pimp

Yeah, the potential of this sort of tech is impressive. More so considering the price of production is estimated to be half its retail price. If some smart type sees an opening in the market for the sort of things the Kinect can do, but with support for third party devs then we could see a serious revolution in computer interfacing

Chance of that actually happening... slim

 

[Mezzo.]

I was prepared to just write of this thing.

Now I say, that is some freakin' sweet tech.

 

[VanityGirl]

I really thought Kinect was lame, but this is making me think Kinect is pretty sweet.

 

[DTWolfwood]

get the man 5 more kinects to get all six axis!

 

[Trivun]

Seriously, Microsoft needs to actually get off their arses and hire every single person who is doing stuff like this and demonstrating Kinect's potential to the world. I already loved the idea of Kinect from it's announcement despite even now preferring the name 'Natal', despite what the haters said, but the potential for all this technology is still at a very early stage, and with people this talented and creative doing things we could only dream of before (or write about in sci-fi movies starring Tom Cruise), that potential is becoming a reality faster and faster. We are actually witnessing as it happens a new stage in technological advancement, at least with regards to computer science, and I can honestly see within the next few years true 3D recognition and hands-free computer manipulation as seen in things like Minority Report or, dare I say it, the Matrix sequels (that is, not the whole virtual reality thing, but you know how the touch-screen things in the Zion mainframe system work, that they use to open the gates for the hovercraft? That sort of thing...).

In other words, and one much shorter sentence, I think this is bloody awesome .

 

[crazypsyko666]

You do realize what this could actually do, right? I remember back in the day when people were figuring things out with the Wii, and one of the more interesting concepts was head tracking. The interesting thing is that when the image tracks your head it generates a 3D effect, no tricks involved. What I'm thinking is that we could use this to generate even BETTER 3D gaming, considering that Xbox 360's can still use their controllers while the kinect is on and doing its thing. Also, we could lean again in COD to check around corners/dodge bullets.

P.S.: Found the video. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jd3-eiid-Uw

 

[Alien Mole]

Quick question about the Kinects interfering with each other: would there theoretically not be a way to shift the frequency/spectrum/whatever of the other units ever so slightly so that they don't interfere? Just curious.

 

[The Hive Mind]

Microsoft would make a shit load of money if they just said "fuck the xbox" and marketed it to PC uber-nerds. Its not like any Xbox players want the stinkin kinect.

 

[teknoarcanist]

What's interesting to me is how this looks like the representation of virtual 3d-modeling or VR you used to see in old sci-fi movies. Technology comes full-circle :O

 

[crepesack]

If we put a kinect at the end of each of an XYZ axis that is at a 45 degree angle to the line formed by a person's body perpendicular to the floor. We could probably fill in those gaps easily. It's just aligning the camera inputs with the depth values of each kinect. And BAM full on instant 3D.

Of course there would stil be holes in the 3D such as underneath the person on the skyward Z axis but having another set of kinects aligned on an axis perpindcular to the original up down z axis we could fill them in.

I'm certain there's a simpler way to do this but a set up that can 3D map a person in real time for about 900 dollars is a steal.

 

[FieryTrainwreck]

Stuff like this has me thinking we just might get to see some of that cool sci-fi nonsense before the oil crash sends us back into the middle ages.