Official MS Kinect SDK Coming to Windows 84
fredr1k writes "Microsoft figured there is some movement in the Kinect hacking scene. They have now announced a Kinect SDK for Windows. (Though only for Academics & Enthusiasts). 'Ever since the November launch of Kinect for Xbox 360, enthusiasts and academic researchers alike have expressed their excitement and intense interest in the possibilities created by the products ability to enable users to bring games and entertainment to life without using a controller. While Microsoft plans to release a commercial version at a later date, this SDK will be a starter kit to make it simpler for the academic research and enthusiast communities to create rich natural user interfaces using Kinect technology.'"
Re:Not a MS fan, but... (Score:2, Informative)
> More positive than they had before
To be fair to MS, the Kinect did not employ any dirty tricks to keep it from being used on other equipment. If you read the blogs of the guys who built the first drivers, they reported none of the usual encryption tricks others like Sony and Nintendo are always using. Perhaps there's an argument about Japanese society's take on consumer rights/hacking, as these concepts are very Western or even explicitly American.
The only protectionism of the Kinect is see is that it does some crypto when talking to an Xbox. This exists so that competitors cannot build shoddy versions of the Kinect for the Xbox. Using the Kinect on other equipment seems to be hacker friendly, or at least, not explicitly anti-hacker.
Yo Microsoft! (Score:5, Informative)