Saturday, February 26, 2011
Wednesday, February 23, 2011
Kinect contest started by Johnny Chung Lee
Johnny Chung Lee got me interested in the topic of immersive devices when he demo'ed a Wiimote hacked with a PC being used to turn any surface into a large touchable interface. He joined MS for awhile, and helped bring us the Kinect. Apparently he also started the whole Kinect hacking craze.
I actually have a secret to share on this topic. Back in the late Summer of 2010, trying to argue for the most basic level of PC support for Kinect from within Microsoft, to my immense disappointment, turned out to be really grinding against the corporate grain at the time (for many reasons I won't enumerate here). When my frustration peaked, I decided to approach AdaFruit to put on the Open Kinect contest. For obvious reasons, I couldn't run the contest myself. Besides, Phil and Limor did a phenomenal job, much better than I could have done. Without a doubt, the contest had a significant impact in raising awareness about the potential for the Kinect outside of Xbox gaming both inside and outside the company. Best $3000 I ever spent.
This probably sold more devices and got more PR for Microsoft than any banner hung from the CN Tower.
And now they announced the legit drivers will be available directly from MS in the spring.
Hopefully they support the Kinect with another HD Webcam connected to the same PC.
I actually have a secret to share on this topic. Back in the late Summer of 2010, trying to argue for the most basic level of PC support for Kinect from within Microsoft, to my immense disappointment, turned out to be really grinding against the corporate grain at the time (for many reasons I won't enumerate here). When my frustration peaked, I decided to approach AdaFruit to put on the Open Kinect contest. For obvious reasons, I couldn't run the contest myself. Besides, Phil and Limor did a phenomenal job, much better than I could have done. Without a doubt, the contest had a significant impact in raising awareness about the potential for the Kinect outside of Xbox gaming both inside and outside the company. Best $3000 I ever spent.
This probably sold more devices and got more PR for Microsoft than any banner hung from the CN Tower.
And now they announced the legit drivers will be available directly from MS in the spring.
Hopefully they support the Kinect with another HD Webcam connected to the same PC.
Thursday, February 17, 2011
http://www.boffswana.com/news/?p=1293#more-1293
Boffswana is at the cutting edge of Augmented Reality applications with some large Fortune 500 clients (or at least their ad agencies).
In this clip they muck around the office tracking and displaying a Blob avatar with Kinect and Unity 3D.
http://www.boffswana.com/news/?p=1293#more-1293
For those that guess the above blob link will be something to do with a binary large object, you're wrong and geeky like me.
In my last article, Why SQL Server is a 4-letter word, I discussed acronyms. The term blob is a bacronym. This is an acronym that was constructed after-the-fact to cover up that it really was named after "The Blob that ate Cincinnati." The person who first applied the name Blob to a database object was Jim Starkey. He tells a hilarious Dilbert-ish story about the origins of the term here, and how marketers like acronyms.
In this clip they muck around the office tracking and displaying a Blob avatar with Kinect and Unity 3D.
http://www.boffswana.com/news/?p=1293#more-1293
For those that guess the above blob link will be something to do with a binary large object, you're wrong and geeky like me.
In my last article, Why SQL Server is a 4-letter word, I discussed acronyms. The term blob is a bacronym. This is an acronym that was constructed after-the-fact to cover up that it really was named after "The Blob that ate Cincinnati." The person who first applied the name Blob to a database object was Jim Starkey. He tells a hilarious Dilbert-ish story about the origins of the term here, and how marketers like acronyms.
Sunday, February 13, 2011
Quake 3 Motion Sensor pre-Kinect
Innovation knows no boundaries. And this one doesn't even need calibration.
Wednesday, February 9, 2011
wow. This is true Augmented Reality
He just won himself $3000 by drawing x's and o's.
Robotics engineer Garratt Gallagher uses the Kinect to create a virtual soundboard using a method out of a cartoon universe: he draws a circle on a piece of paper, and when he presses the virtual "button" computers make a sound.
As Gallagher says on his blog: "Magic right? this is what happens in cartoons – you draw an eject button, then you hit it and you eject. This can work in real life?!?"
Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/techchron/detail?entry_id=82388#ixzz1DWOYg6MU
Things are just starting to get interesting... I drew this picture and it magically appeared on my blog.
Band Video in Kinectvision
Point Clouds are cool. whoa. uh. heh. heh.
http://www.vimeo.com/19356569
The Echo Lake 12" 'Young Silence' is released on No Pain in Pop on February 14th 2011.
nopaininpop.greedbag.com
echolakeband.com
This video was shot on the Microsoft Kinect by me and Dom Jones on December 14th 2010. I then spent the next seven weeks (mostly after work) making it look like that ^
The video was captured and processed using custom applications developed in Cinder. The software was based on the work that Flight 404 did with his early Kinect libraries.
http://www.vimeo.com/19356569
The Echo Lake 12" 'Young Silence' is released on No Pain in Pop on February 14th 2011.
nopaininpop.greedbag.com
echolakeband.com
This video was shot on the Microsoft Kinect by me and Dom Jones on December 14th 2010. I then spent the next seven weeks (mostly after work) making it look like that ^
The video was captured and processed using custom applications developed in Cinder. The software was based on the work that Flight 404 did with his early Kinect libraries.
Friday, February 4, 2011
HTML5 and jQuery - how to record audio
jQuery is a javascript library that makes programming javascript fun. Did I say that out loud? I hate javascript.
jQuery can't record your voice though.
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1333861/how-to-record-user-voice-with-jquery
+1 for "jQuery is good, but it's not that good!" – Robin Day Aug 26 '09 at 11:08
@Robin, I heard jQuery will solve the global financial crisis too ;) – Ash Aug 26 '09 at 11:24
@Ash I think thats a job for Prototype not jQuery :-) – AutomatedTester Aug 26 '09 at 11:55
Using jQuery in your web apps is pretty simple. You can also increase your performance by using the hosted Google version of the library.
http://encosia.com/2008/12/10/3-reasons-why-you-should-let-google-host-jquery-for-you/
http://encosia.com/2010/09/15/6953-reasons-why-i-still-let-google-host-jquery-for-me/
http://weblogs.asp.net/jgalloway/archive/2010/01/21/using-cdn-hosted-jquery-with-a-local-fall-back-copy.aspx
Microsoft provides a similar service for its Ajax library. I don't like Ajax much either.
http://www.asp.net/ajaxlibrary/cdn.ashx
Cloud computing anyone? Is MS the trend leader or Google? Since I'm a PC with a SQL background, I was able to understand the answer below.
Analysis
By casting a wide net with the regex and logging any script reference that contained the word “jQuery”, I was able to construct ad-hoc queries to answer a variety of questions. For example, how many top 200,000 sites use the Google CDN to host jQuery UI for them?
SELECT count(*)
FROM Results
WHERE Reference LIKE '%googleapis%jquery-ui.min.js'
Answer: 989
Want to know how many top 1,000 sites use the Microsoft CDN for any jQuery-related script?
SELECT COUNT(*)
FROM Results
WHERE Reference LIKE '%ajax.microsoft%jquery%'
AND Rank <= 1000
Answer: 1 (Microsoft.com)
So is Microsoft piggy-backing on other people's technology ideas? Naaaaa. :)
http://inventors.about.com/library/weekly/aa033099.htm
Did Apple steal the mouse? Naaaa...
http://www.folklore.org/StoryView.py?story=On_Xerox,_Apple_and_Progress.txt
Did Sony turn down the Kinect? Naaa...
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2010-11-27-sony-why-we-turned-down-kinect-interview
Apparently cost was a factor for Sony so they stopped "researching" it.
Ouch.
“We are enthusiastic about the consumer response to our holiday lineup of products, including the launch of Kinect. The 8 million units of Kinect sensors sold in just 60 days far exceeded our expectations,” said Peter Klein, chief financial officer at Microsoft.
http://www.microsoft.com/investor/EarningsAndFinancials/Earnings/PressReleaseAndWebcast/FY11/Q2/default.aspx
jQuery can't record your voice, but it can talk.
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/3853254/how-to-hear-the-audio-of-a-text-to-speech-translation
Windows 7 can record your voice, and even has a handsfree mode built in.
http://clubhouse.microsoft.com/public/post/cda7347a-9f83-41da-8fcc-8562c0fa45e7
Some interesting Kinect hacks are going to come out of this...
jQuery can't record your voice though.
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1333861/how-to-record-user-voice-with-jquery
+1 for "jQuery is good, but it's not that good!" – Robin Day Aug 26 '09 at 11:08
@Robin, I heard jQuery will solve the global financial crisis too ;) – Ash Aug 26 '09 at 11:24
@Ash I think thats a job for Prototype not jQuery :-) – AutomatedTester Aug 26 '09 at 11:55
Using jQuery in your web apps is pretty simple. You can also increase your performance by using the hosted Google version of the library.
http://encosia.com/2008/12/10/3-reasons-why-you-should-let-google-host-jquery-for-you/
http://encosia.com/2010/09/15/6953-reasons-why-i-still-let-google-host-jquery-for-me/
http://weblogs.asp.net/jgalloway/archive/2010/01/21/using-cdn-hosted-jquery-with-a-local-fall-back-copy.aspx
Microsoft provides a similar service for its Ajax library. I don't like Ajax much either.
http://www.asp.net/ajaxlibrary/cdn.ashx
Cloud computing anyone? Is MS the trend leader or Google? Since I'm a PC with a SQL background, I was able to understand the answer below.
Analysis
By casting a wide net with the regex and logging any script reference that contained the word “jQuery”, I was able to construct ad-hoc queries to answer a variety of questions. For example, how many top 200,000 sites use the Google CDN to host jQuery UI for them?
SELECT count(*)
FROM Results
WHERE Reference LIKE '%googleapis%jquery-ui.min.js'
Answer: 989
Want to know how many top 1,000 sites use the Microsoft CDN for any jQuery-related script?
SELECT COUNT(*)
FROM Results
WHERE Reference LIKE '%ajax.microsoft%jquery%'
AND Rank <= 1000
Answer: 1 (Microsoft.com)
So is Microsoft piggy-backing on other people's technology ideas? Naaaaa. :)
http://inventors.about.com/library/weekly/aa033099.htm
Did Apple steal the mouse? Naaaa...
http://www.folklore.org/StoryView.py?story=On_Xerox,_Apple_and_Progress.txt
Did Sony turn down the Kinect? Naaa...
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2010-11-27-sony-why-we-turned-down-kinect-interview
Apparently cost was a factor for Sony so they stopped "researching" it.
Ouch.
“We are enthusiastic about the consumer response to our holiday lineup of products, including the launch of Kinect. The 8 million units of Kinect sensors sold in just 60 days far exceeded our expectations,” said Peter Klein, chief financial officer at Microsoft.
http://www.microsoft.com/investor/EarningsAndFinancials/Earnings/PressReleaseAndWebcast/FY11/Q2/default.aspx
jQuery can't record your voice, but it can talk.
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/3853254/how-to-hear-the-audio-of-a-text-to-speech-translation
Windows 7 can record your voice, and even has a handsfree mode built in.
http://clubhouse.microsoft.com/public/post/cda7347a-9f83-41da-8fcc-8562c0fa45e7
Some interesting Kinect hacks are going to come out of this...
Thursday, February 3, 2011
There's a new Sheriff in town
and it's a puppet.
The Gunstringer is a Kinect game where you get to marionette a kick-ass undead cowboy puppet through action packed stage performances.
http://www.thegunstringer.com/
The Gunstringer is unlike any Kinect game you may have played previously. There are no minigames, forced gestures, or end of level photos of you in your underwear here. You can play it sitting down, which is great if you just want to play and relax rather than burn crazy calories. Most importantly, you can aim and move with precision not seen in any of the Kinect launch titles, and with a speed and feel that’s just not possible with a traditional controller.
That should be a good game to offset the 27 calories I burned yesterday playing Fitness Evolved.
The Gunstringer is a Kinect game where you get to marionette a kick-ass undead cowboy puppet through action packed stage performances.
http://www.thegunstringer.com/
The Gunstringer is unlike any Kinect game you may have played previously. There are no minigames, forced gestures, or end of level photos of you in your underwear here. You can play it sitting down, which is great if you just want to play and relax rather than burn crazy calories. Most importantly, you can aim and move with precision not seen in any of the Kinect launch titles, and with a speed and feel that’s just not possible with a traditional controller.
That should be a good game to offset the 27 calories I burned yesterday playing Fitness Evolved.
Wednesday, February 2, 2011
Johnny Chung Lee leaves MS, joins Google
Johnny started the whole wii-mote hacking craze with his wii-mote whiteboard, and has spent the last couple years working on Kinect at Microsoft.
It was a wild ride, helping Kinect along through the very early days of incubation (even before it was called "Project Natal") all the way to shipping 8 million units in the first 60 days. It's not often you work on a project that gets a lavish product announcement by Cirque du Soleil and a big Times Square Launch party. The success of Kinect is a result of fantastic work by a lot of people. I'm also very happy that so many other people share my excitement about the technology.
http://procrastineering.blogspot.com/
It was a wild ride, helping Kinect along through the very early days of incubation (even before it was called "Project Natal") all the way to shipping 8 million units in the first 60 days. It's not often you work on a project that gets a lavish product announcement by Cirque du Soleil and a big Times Square Launch party. The success of Kinect is a result of fantastic work by a lot of people. I'm also very happy that so many other people share my excitement about the technology.
http://procrastineering.blogspot.com/
Xbox: Project Natal Blog
Developer of GlovePIE has a blog with lots of trailers for Xbox Kinect games.
This is the kind of interface I’ve long daydreamed about. And I hope game developers and players will understand its potential when it is so unlike what we’ve seen before.
So read or subscribe to my Project Natal blog at http://XboxProjectNatalBlog.com to keep up with all the latest and not-so-latest news about Microsoft’s revolutionary (aka wiiy) new controller which you will be able to buy this year. And if you haven’t heard about and don’t know what Project Natal is yet, then I highly recommend you look at the intro video on my blog, and prepare to be astounded.
This is the kind of interface I’ve long daydreamed about. And I hope game developers and players will understand its potential when it is so unlike what we’ve seen before.
So read or subscribe to my Project Natal blog at http://XboxProjectNatalBlog.com to keep up with all the latest and not-so-latest news about Microsoft’s revolutionary (aka wiiy) new controller which you will be able to buy this year. And if you haven’t heard about and don’t know what Project Natal is yet, then I highly recommend you look at the intro video on my blog, and prepare to be astounded.
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