Technology Slice Blog

Microsoft Kinect Open Source - It's a story you don't hear too often: a large company taking a step back from pursuing those who might be using its technology in ways that were never intended, as well as admitting that the product was made to open up those avenues by design. That much is now true of Microsoft and its stance on going after those who were making third-party software drivers for its Kinect hardware accessory. The story of how we got there is now, for the most part, well known. The product came out and was taken to immediately, not just by gamers but also by tinkerers who wanted to have their way with the hardware and use it in places Microsoft was not yet offering--like on its Windows operating system. What's interesting about all this though, is that it's a distinct departure for Microsoft, given a history of increasingly closed hardware accessories that make up the Xbox ecosystem. Admittedly, Kinect is a very young product, having been on store sh...

Kinect Review - First presented to the world as Project Natal at E3 2009, Microsoft's Kinect sensor peripheral has since been positioned by the software (and hardware) giant as the next phase of Xbox 360's evolution as a platform. A combination of hardware and software, it's been billed as a means for users to interact with their consoles and play games without using a physical controller, using natural gestures, voice commands and face recognition. I've had a final retail Kinect unit at home for a little over a week now, and have had ample time to put the shiny new gadget through its paces. Is it as magical as expected? Will it transform gaming? Or, more importantly, does it even work? Read on past the break for my in-depth review of this ambitious apparatus. Kinect is a single piece of hardware, yet it incorporates several distinct technologies. There's an infrared emitter that floods your play space with invisible light, paired with a CMOS sensor that then l...