Monday, January 31, 2011

Latest Kinect Hack brings Angry Birds to a Kinect PC

Kinect Hackers have shown off the latest way to use Kinect on a PC with Angry Birds.

The highly popular game Angry Birds has been adapted to run on a Windows PC using Microsoft’s Kinect sensor. Utilizing the Kinemote software, Joel Griffin Dodd has created a Kinect variant of Angry Birds.

Microsoft has shipped over 8 million Kinect sensors in just 60 days on the market. Microsoft’s Kinect sensor has been a phenomenal success story for the company. The console accessory sold out across a number of retailers during the recent festive season and Microsoft smashed its own estimates of 5 million units in 2010 by shipping 8 million devices. Kinect hackers have shown off Minority Report style multitouch control and the Kinect running on Mac OS X. Microsoft said in November that it left the USB connection on the Kinect open, “by design.” Kinect hackers have recently taken the device to new heights. Videos emerged of device owners fully controlling Windows 7 and interactive prototype puppets. Kinect hacking is only at the very early stages but what’s clear is hackers are demonstrating the potential of the technology for use on PCs.

Microsoft blogger Steve Clayton revealed recently that the company is excited by the hundreds of ways people are using Kinect. “The enthusiasm we are seeing in the scientific community – specifically the research and academic communities – around potential applications of Kinect, is exciting to see” wrote Clayton. Microsoft is set to unveil driver support and an SDK in the coming months and will allow third-party developers to create titles that utilize the Kinect sensor when plugged into a PC. According to sources familiar with the plans, Microsoft will distribute the drivers under the “beta” tag. Microsoft CEO, Steve Ballmer,promised Kinect for PC during an interview at CES and confirmed the company would announce official support “in the right time.”

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