Project Natal

[dlewis]

Possible future of LinuxMCE (around 3:11): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g_txF7iETX0

[Pnuts]

I had heard about it but after watching that video, Wow!

That is rather impressive.

[krys]

Rather impressive _demo_ doubt the real life version will be like that for quite some time.... imagine your in the middle of a very intense FPS and the person on the couch next to you sneezes and your character shoots himself in the face. Too many variables to be able to just walk up and start playing.

[niz23]

This one for PS3 is quite impressive too.
Unfortunately you have to wait for the initial commercial to finish before the real video start.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/8080511.stm

The last whip is nice.

/niz23

[totallymaxed]

Possible future of LinuxMCE (around 3:11): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g_txF7iETX0

Yeah...these types of new UI interactions where the controller is virtual are really exciting...where the Wii led the way MS & Sony are scrambling to catch up.

Andrew

[alx2k]

Some more info has appeared on project natal.

On the bright side, seems like it's going to hit the market on november 2010, and some sources say its retail price will be around 60 €.
Also it will measure at 30fps.

On the dark side, seems like not all the project runs on hardware, on this video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b3-Ejib0z3U, says it depends 50% on hardware 50% on software, so in order to make it useful with Linuxmce (or any other linux distro) it will need some software development.

Also, since this is my first post this year, Happy new year to all of you.

[dlewis]

And don't forget it will most likely be closed source...

[alx2k]

We are talking about MS here...

I'm sure it will be closed source.

[valent]

Natal aka Kinetic is out now, anybody had chance to play with it? Comments?
I like voice commands and think that is is definitely the way forward.

LinuxMCE play dance music.
LinuxMCE dim the lights.

You get the drift

[pbulteel]

Couldn't something like this be implemented with regular hardware? Get 2 cheap £12 web cams and put them 30cm apart and that should be enough to get some spacial information. After that it would be mostly software to detect the motion from someone walking in front of the TV and doing all the "swipes" etc for motion.

Yes, I know. I make it sound easy and it probably isn't as easy as that, but still sounds like a fun project.

--
Patrick

[wierdbeard65]

but still sounds like a fun project.

Hey guys! Looks like we have another developer on-board! :-D

[los93sol]

Bumping an old thread since Kinect is finally available.  Some notes that make this thing an absolutely incredible candidate for home automation usage.

1) Price point, $150USD
2) Heat sensing capability
3) True noise cancelling microphone
4) USB
5) Pan/Tilt functionality
6) Laser scanning

Okay, so I picked one up at launch at midnight last night and got it home, I'm extremely impressed with it, and immediately saw the use cases in home automations.  Yes it's closed source, but so was the wiimote and it's now functional on Linux so really only a matter of the right people showing interest in it as a hackable device/toy.  The base itself has pan/tilt functionality built in, there is a laser that scans the room and adjusts the angle of the camera as necessary to track whoever is detected as the player in the room.  (think security)  There is a microphone on board with proper noise cancelling built in, and an on board camera. (think security and phone)  From what I can tell the laser is also being used to determine depth of objects within the room.  From the setup shots, it also appears the device has heat sensing capabilities built in as well, though I have not confirmed this yet.  Last but not least, it is USB.

So what do you guys think?  I see a GSD driver in it's future once things start progressing, seems a very cheap way to get phone and security features added to a room.  $150 is cheap for a launch price when you consider what we'd pay for equipment separately to get the identical functionality....plus you're stealthy, an intruder won't realize it's a security camera....it's just a Kinect sensor (they will probably steal it though, but then you just get a nice up close shot of their face) 

[fastie81]

Hi

Just saw this RSS Feed..
This my mean that we will see this coming up very soon..
http://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2010/11/adafruit-offers-2000-bounty-for-open-source-microsoft-kinect-drivers/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+d0od+(Omg!+Ubuntu!)
C

[los93sol]

Yep, there are several projects going on currently, most really hit the ground running last night after adafruit released the USB dumps from their analyzer.  There are drivers being developed under several different licenses, and should be firming up soon, there's already several people successfully getting the RGB+D data out of the camera and controlling the motorized base.  Only a matter of time now really.  First thing I'll be doing with it in LinuxMCE is leveraging the noise canceling mics for an MD phone, then onto using the camera as a security sensor.  Jump in, get acquinted with the LinuxMCE codebase, and help out.  I've got several projects going at the moment and this one is not high on my priority list.  We still have a shortage of developers and really appreciate when people pitch in.

[bongowongo]

Is it just me, but I just do not see any benefit with this controller.