Firm Offers $2K Bounty for Open-Source Kinect Drivers

DIY electronics company Adafruit Industries is offering a $2,000 bounty to anyone who can develop an open-source driver for Microsoft's newly released Kinect. Kinect is a single piece of hardware that connects to Xbox 360 game console and lets players control the game via their bodies; no controller necessary.

"Imagine being able to use this off the shelf camera for Xbox for Mac, Linux, Win, embedded systems, robotics, etc. We know Microsoft isn't developing this device for FIRST Robotics, but we could," Adafruit wrote in a blog post. "Let's reverse engineer this together, get the RGB and distance out of it and make cool stuff."

For its "Hack the Kinect for Xbox 360" challenge, Adafruit called on participants to develop open-sources drivers that run on any OS and are completely documented under an open-source license. Participants must also write an app with one window showing video (640-by-480) and another showing depth. Upload to GitHub, and you'll be in the running for a $2,000 prize.