Microsoft Supportive of Open-Source Kinect Projects?

Not long after the launch of Microsoft’s Kinect motion-sensing peripheral for the Xbox 360, some creative hardware hackers got down to business and had the device function with a PC. The progress there is still in the earliest of stages, but the potential is huge. Given the major advantages the Kinect has over a regular webcam, there are many possibilities for a more interactive PC experience.

After news of the hack broke, Microsoft immediately issued a response, stating that it had implemented hardware and software safeguards inside of the Kinect to prevent tampering (those sure helped!), and that it in no way condoned these practices. Even further, it stated that it would be working with authorities to prevent it from getting out of hand.

Such a stance seemed a little strange, given that if people could do things with the Kinect on their own PCs, sales would be good. it makes sense to me, at least, but didn’t to Microsoft. Now, though, the company seems to have changed its stance, saying that no hacking has gone on, but rather that someone wrote an open-source driver for the USB connection which Microsoft “didn’t protect, by design“.

It’s hard to know whether Microsoft saw the light or simply realized that it was pointless to go after people trying to do innovative things with its product. Either way, being that Microsoft is not exactly against this kind of activity, we can hope that more developers will dip into Kinect and start creating some neat technologies.

The first thing to talk about is, Kinect was not actually hacked. Hacking would mean that someone got to our algorithms that sit inside of the Xbox and was able to actually use them, which hasn’t happened. Or, it means that you put a device between the sensor and the Xbox for means of cheating, which also has not happened. That’s what we call hacking, and that’s what we have put a ton of work and effort to make sure doesn’t actually occur. What has happened is someone wrote an open-source driver for PCs that essentially opens the USB connection, which we didn’t protect, by design, and reads the inputs from the sensor.