Microsoft’s Kinect controller has been hacked a few days after its release
Late last week it was reported that a New-York based company; Adafruit Industries were offering $2000 to any individual or group that could develop an open source Kinect driver hack that could bring the technology to other platforms outside of Xbox360.
Code to manage the motion-capture device has been produced to use it with a PC rather than the XBOX game console. Microsoft has said that not happy with the unofficial modifications made to the gadget’s control system.
The attempt to hack the control system for the Kinect gadget was kick-started by electronics kit maker Adafruit. On 4 November it announced it would pay $1,000 (£624) to the first person to produce control software, known as drivers, for the Kinect.It upped the bounty to $3,000 (£1,871) following comment from Microsoft saying it did not condone the reverse-engineering of its motion controller.
A company spokesperson for Microsoft told CNET that “Microsoft does not condone the modification of its products,” The spokesperson followed up by saying “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.”
Phillip Torrone, Senior editor for Make magazine and a part investor of the bounty said the idea behind offering the bounty was because “It’s amazing hardware that shouldn’t just be locked up for Xbox 360,” which Torrone told CNET in an email. “Its ‘radar camera’ being able to get video and distance as a sensor input from commodity hardware is huge.”
Microsoft pointed out that the Xbox 360 control system for the Kinect had not been hacked. And said that “We strongly encourage customers to use Kinect for Xbox 360 with their Xbox 360 to get the best experience possible.”
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