The Minority Report Kinect SDK hacks begin

Mark the date. This is the beginning of what I can only imagine to be a long stream of Minority Report-inspired Kinect SDK experiments.

Barely two days after the Kinect for Windows SDK beta was released, .NET developer Kevin Connolly has already successfully implemented a primitive but inspiring demo that hooks into the Windows 7 Flip 3D window management functionality, activated by gestures not from the ones used in the movie. Granted, it didn’t work perfectly, but Rome wasn’t built in a day either.

It’s funny to think just how much influence a movie nearly a decade old has had and is still having on natural user interfaces. Luckily for us, the movie was set in 2054 which means the Kinect for Windows SDK just gave us a 43-year head start. In the words of this developer, “imagine what we’ll see in a few months”.

Update: Follow along his YouTube channel for updates as he continues to refine the hack.

6 insightful thoughts

  1. I think MS was an advisor wrt Minority Report effects. Anyhow, I can’t wait to see this as ubiquitous as TVs. Hopefully soon, instead of towers and laptops, we’ll be buying MS Surface “surfaces” with built-in Kinect tech using PixelSense… we’ll build walls in our homes with this and fridge doors…um, yeah appliances and stuff. lol

    Cool stuff.

    1. Correct. Microsoft Research was the original consultant for Minority for the original first draft for the movie. Later on they revamped that screenplay and a lot of new consultants were added to that movie project. Microsoft Research was no longer on that. But from what i have seen in the behind the scenes. All the base concepts were worked upon from what MSFT R had proposed. Plus of course a lot more that were added later.

      1. Too bad MS didn’t end up shipping any of it and let Apple take the lead in touch.

  2. The beauty of Minority Report is that the tech is advanced, but clearly realistic.

    They still have keyboards, but use the gestures for specific tasks. They even use a glove to help the PC understand the gestures.

    They still have disks, but are transparent and with big capacity.

    They still have cars, but can drive themselves with the help of an intelligent road.

  3. I really like how excited he is about it. I get this way when I do something technological.
    “… It works! … ”
    I share your enthusiasm, sir !

  4. I think that since I have an Xbox 360 with the Kinect, I rather fancy trying to get it working as an alternative to my computer mouse. In my opinion, it would be so awesome, it would tempt me to toss my computer mouse in the bin.

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