Updated on May 8, 2011
In today’s society we like to push the envelope, challenge ourselves. There is always someone out there to prove others wrong. So when the new gaming system the Xbox Kinect came out, you can bet there was a bunch of hackers and programmers just waiting to jump at the opportunity to show the world it’s imperfections.
In today’s society we like to push the envelope, challenge ourselves. There is always someone out there to prove others wrong. So when the new gaming system the Xbox Kinect came out, you can bet there was a bunch of hackers and programmers just waiting to jump at the opportunity to show the world it’s imperfections.
The most recent one to show off his ability was a Japanese researcher Akihiro Nakamura from the Nara Institute of Science and Technology (NAIST). Nakaamura also goes by the name Ogutti online.
Ogutti created the “future vacuum” by combining the Kinect and a Roomba vacuum cleaner. By using the kinect and roomba Ogutti can control the devise by using a variety of gestures, which will enable its uses to no longer need to bed over or push buttons.
With this hack the vacuum can be directed in any direction with just the slightest gesture, rather than using the remote control. The roomba alone may be known to miss spots here and there, however this problem can easily be solved if you had the ability to tell the roomba where it should be going.
(Video is from youtube shows how the roomba works by using gestures)
Ogutti was able to hack the kinect and roomba. The roomba is being controlled by a FRISK Bluetooth module, which he placed on top of the roomba. From there Ogutti calibrated the roomba, all you have to do to do this is simply hold both arms in the air. It’s like connecting your wii remotes to your wii.. After that your done, the roomba gets to work by sucking up dirt and following in the direction that you point it in.
Roomba has also been able to follow other gestures as well. To make it clean a spot that it missed on the floor, get into the scolding stance: your left hand on your hip, and with your right hand pointing at the dirt still left on the floor. The roomba will scoot over to the missed spot and does a thorough cleaning. Also by simply lifting your left hand the roomba will start to turn in circles. When you leave the room the roomba will go into a docking mode and then will search for its charging station.
(This video is from youtube, it shows that sometimes the roomba will miss spots and how the kinect and motion control will help fix that).
This isn’t the most recent hack for the kinect. There is an entire website designed for kinect hacks. There are twelve pages of things that hackers and programmers have done in order to hack the kinect. The first one was submitted November 15, 2010. Along with that there are also video tutorials and guides on how to set up your Microsoft Kinect for it to be hacked.
Technology keeps on changing and hackers and programmers are trying to push the envelope and challenge themselves. Nothing is ever perfect, nothing ever will be, and that’s why I believe there are hackers in the world to keep challenging programmers and video game designers.
I was initially confused by the opening paragraph in which "In today’s society we like to push the envelope, challenge ourselves. There is always someone out there to prove others wrong. So when the new gaming system the Xbox Kinect came out, you can bet there was a bunch of hackers and programmers just waiting to lunge at the opportunity to show the world it’s imperfections."
ReplyDeleteIn which you make it sound as if there is an imperfection in the Xbox hackers need to exploit which from what I understand was not the case, they cleverly found another use for an existing video game consule to be used as a motion detected vacuum cleaner.
The article was well explained, you details how the workings of the Roomba were very well, included lots of multi media which make it easy on the eyes, and your blog background also helps make your blog easy to read. Your videos were very relevant in helping explain further what Roomba did. You did a good job keeping abreast at your topic, this was fun to read!
Let me begin by saying that this is insane! This entry is written very well and you stay on topic very well.
ReplyDeleteAs I was clicking through you're links the FRISK link confuses me because when I click on it I am taken to an anti-virus page. I am assuming that FRISK is the company that makes the Bluetooth module. I also don't really understand why "lunge" is linked to the story that you wrote you're blog about. With that said I believe that is a good link to have in your story but you might want to think of another word or phrase to describe this link so the reader can get a good sense of where they are about to be taken.
The article overall is very appealing to the eye and easy to follow and read. You use the media elements very well throughout this post and they enhance you're points.
Very interesting topic for a blog post, and honestly, had you not posted about it, I would probably have never heard about it. I was a big non-believer in the Kinect when it was first advertised a year or so ago with the whole notion of "your body is the controller" and that's all you need to play video games. Well, now Kinect is integrating its way into everyday life with the roomba hack as well. What have we become?
ReplyDeleteAnyways, I was very pleased with the use of multimedia in this post. Both videos correspond great to the topic at hand and really help the reader understand more of what you are talking about with such a strange and innovative concept.
Perhaps for a future post you could write more about the Kinect and how its getting gamers more active and how video game developers are designing games to get players moving around. My roommate recently bought a Kinect and believe me, you literally break a sweat playing some of the games, which is a good thing I guess. Anyways, great insightful post!