Microsoft Xbox Kinect: Top 10 Most Awesome Hacks (Videos)

A Microsoft Kinect is more than just a simple gaming console and if used intelligently with all the hacks, it can be transformed into one of the coolest technologies you will ever possess. Here are the things you could do with your Kinect technology.

World of Warcraft: You will get to re-discover the World of Warcraft on the new Kinect’s motion and voice-based gaming. A game with over 12 million subscribers is bound to get more intense once it mixes with the Kinect technology. With Kinect and a new hack, you can now move around, cast spells and interact with other players in Azeroth (a well-realized in-game world).

Video Capture: A new hack now lets you transform your Kinect into a 3-D video capture tool. This has been possible due to the arrival of the power of open-source drivers. According to a previous Engadget report, UC Davis visualization researcher Oliver Kreylos introduced the streams from his peripheral's infrared and color cameras into a custom program that interpolated and renovated it and resulted into a mindblowing 3-D virtual reality environment which he could later manipulate at will.

An Invisibility Cloak?: Did you know that a Kinect can provide you with something that is very close to a real-life invisibility cloak by a simple optical camouflage hack? Check out the cool video below.

Super Saiyan Powers (Dragonball Z): A new Kinect hack lets you re-enact scenes from the very popular Dragonball Z. Known as ‘Kinect Kamehameha,’ the new hack works on Kinect’s motion sensing technology and provides you with oversized hair and cool energy balls. The hack is available via Google Code.

Kinect Controlled AR Drone: Imagine how cool it would be to control your own AR Drone just with Kinect’s movement technology, just by waving your arms around, similar to the way we used to enact being an airplane when we were kids. Check the video.

Star Wars-Styled Lightsaber: There are things you could possibly end up doing with the Kinect, and one of them is getting yourself a real time lightsaber like the one in Star Wars. The way was figured out by a guy, yankeyan, who says, “I track a wooden stick and I overlay the light glow on the computer. Drivers using OpenKinect, image processing, tracking, and rendering using OpenCV. Audio recorded and processed using Audacity and played using libao,” according to a Geek Tyrant report.

Your Very Own Robotic Arm: Recently students at the University College, London, used an Xbox Kinect for real-time control of an upstart robotic arm. The movements of the performer control the position of the robot's effector directly and also the rotation and opening of the gripper. Find out how they did it.

Kinect-Controlled Delta Robot (WIP) from Enrique Ramos on Vimeo.

Finger Painting: Now with the Kinect, you can use your fingers and paint anything in mid-air that will be almost instantly traced out on the screen in an amazing 3-D pattern. Remember that the designs will depend on where you actually drag your fingers.

Firing Up With Kinect: Everybody knows about Johnny Storm from Fantastic Four. More popularly The Human Torch who has this unique ability to control fire that allows him to project fire from his body. Now you can be the next Johnny Storm via your Kinect. Here’s how.

Object Recognition: A Kinect already has eyes and a new hack now provides it with its own brain that identifies various everyday objects based on their shape and color. This also makes a cool use of the Kinect’s directional microphone and voice recognition.

(Information from Tecca.com)