A hacker has posted videos purportedly showing Microsoft's recently released Kinect 3D camera sending depth and video data and receiving motor control instructions from a Windows PC.
The videos,
posted by an administrator for the Natural User Interfaces online research group, comes just days after electronics distributor Adafruit Industries
offered a $2,000 bounty to anyone able to provide a documented open source driver for the USB device.
The same NUI Group poster
previously released a driver allowing the PS3 Eye camera to be used with Windows computers.
An open version of the $150 Kinect could be a boon to robotics researchers and computer hackers looking for a 3D camera, though Microsoft reacted strongly against the idea of the device being adapted for use on anything but the Xbox 360.
"Microsoft does not condone the modification of its products," the company
told CNet. "With Kinect, Microsoft built in numerous hardware and software safeguards designed to reduce the chances of product tampering."
"Microsoft will continue to make advances in these types of safeguards and work closely with law enforcement and product safety groups to keep Kinect tamper-resistant."
An
analysis by DigitalFoundry suggests the 640x480 depth data obtained when Kinect is hooked up to a PC is actually more robust than the 320x240 depth field listed on the
Kinect's official spec list.
