Hackers Break Microsoft's Kinect Security
A few days after Microsoft launched its Kinect motion-sensing game system, hackers seem to have broken the security behind Kinect.
On the day Kinect went on sale, Adafruit Industries, an open source hardware developer, announced a $1,000 bounty for the first person or group to develop an open source driver for Microsoft's Kinect. One of Adaruit's leaders, Make magazine Senior Editor Phillip Torrone, told CNET, "Adafruit is hoping someone will figure out how to use Kinect in education, robotics, or 'fun outside the Xbox.' We think First Robotics could use this. We think educators could use this. Look at all the cool stuff people did with the Wii remote." Adafruit is also led by MIT Media lab alumni Limor Fried, but it was Torrone who told CNET, "It's amazing hardware that shouldn't just be locked up for Xbox 360. Its 'radar camera' being able to get video and distance as a sensor input from commodity hardware is huge."
Kinect allows gamers to play motion-sensing games without any game controller. It has a $149 price tag as an add-on for the Xbox 360 video game. It is rumored that Microsoft plans to use Kinect-like technology, such as motion sensing capabilities, in a future Windows release. Microsoft was not even slightly pleased about the bounty offer.
