Kinect was launched in North America on November 4, 2010.  In a very short amount of time there seems to have been a number of hacks done to the Kinect, not the malicious kind of hacks as Hollywood would portray, but some really neat tweaks that demonstrate some of the potential of Microsoft’s newest Xbox peripheral.  Though the term “hack” would bring a negative connotation, MS has stated they will not sue the modders.

Here some videos listed in order of the date they were posted demonstrating some of the hacks.  It is interesting to see the different approaches and progression these folks have taken to manipulate the Kinect.

November 11, 2010, Minority Report style multi-touch

November 14, 2010, 3D video capture

November 18, 2010, Kinect puppeteer

November 19, 2010, Real time lightsaber

November 22, 2010, Kinect robot controls

November 25, 2010, Kinect-controlled web surfing

November 28, 2010, 3D video capture, part 2

December 5, 2010, Creating art

http://vimeo.com/17358021

December 5, 2010, Self-controlled quadrotor