The Kinect has this unique ability to really "wow" people while simultaneously creeping them the hell out. Take for example this hack put together by some animatronic wizards over at Disney for their theme park. The goal - juggle with a robot. That's right folks, soon you'll be able to toss a ball to your favourite Disney character and have it sent back before you send the next one over.
Man, if Vince Carter had this type of setup in the second round of the 2001 playoffs, my beloved Raptors would have made it to the Eastern Conference finals. But alas, the Kinect wasn't around and neither was minokur who posted this rather mind blowing YouTube video.
As cool as that title was to write, the video is even cooler. This is one of those articles I post simply because of the purely creative and inventive end result of someones hard work. I doubt the source code will be released any time soon and providing any sort of installation instructions or DIY tutorials is well beyond my skill set.
With that being said, a game of chess between a computer AI isn't anything new. However, controlling the chess piece using natural gestures while having your opponent (who just happens to be a robotic arm) do all "heavy lifting" certainly is.
Damn I love these kinds of projects. Multifaceted configurations using servo's, Arduino, depth sensing cameras -- oh my! I do declare, think I just caught a case of the vapours! This video I stumbled upon has all those elements of badassness (look for other words I've invented that rape the english language in upcoming posts!)
Taylor puts it best in his YouTube description when he writes "Title says it all". Great, so now what am I supposed to do? I'm a "kinect Hacks Journalist" I guess so by default I have to stretch this thing out. Good thing the topic is interesting as old hell and the Hack is just f'n awesome!
Taylor Veltrop, the guy behind several amazing Kinect hacks that involve the teleoperation of autonomous humanoid robots, has created another great video demonstrating how he's able to control a humanoid robot in a more efficient manner. This time around he's configured a treadmill -- not the type that makes you run, the type that the user controls -- in order to control his robot in more closed quarters.