Whenever a flashy new revolutionary technology comes around, two types of people get excited – the average users who are intrigued by the new gadget’s intended purpose, and the hardcore geeks who can’t wait to mod the thing and see what else it’s capable of.
Xbox’s latest offering, the Kinect system, is no different. When combined with the power of open-source drivers, tinkerers have discovered the gaming accessory can be transformed into a true 3D video capture tool.
Oliver Kreylos, a UC Davis visualization researcher, decided to get crafty with his Kinect. He fed the streams from his peripheral’s infrared and colour cameras into a custom program designed to interpolate and reconstruct whatever the camera shot. The result? An incredibly cool effect that turned his workspace into a true 3D virtual environment he can manipulate however he wants.
See for yourself:
While the footage comes out a little warped, it’s still jaw-dropping.
(Via CrunchGear)