A University of California researcher has managed to turn the Xbox Kinect into a 3D video camera. Oliver Kreylos figured he could use the Kinect’s two cameras to capture objects in three dimensions and then re-create them in their original orientation and size so he locked himself in a room with the new Xbox peripheral and three days later it turned it he was right.
One camera provides a photographic video stream and the other, the depth video stream. The two are merged to create a 3D model of the room and everything in it.
Kreylos says he relied on the work of Hector Martin (the guy who won $3000 for creating Kinect PC drivers.)”I didn’t use any of his code, but the ‘magic incantations’ that need to be sent to the Kinect to enable the cameras and start streaming,” he says. “Those incantations were essential, because I don’t own an Xbox myself, so I couldn’t snoop its USB protocol.”
Kreylos wrote his own 3D reconstruction code from scratch in C++, using his own Vrui VR toolkit for 3D rendering management and interaction. He was able to measure the reconstructed objects and show that they exactly match their real-life counterparts.
But this super hacker is not done yet. Kreylos’ next project, he says, will be to incorporate real and computer-generated imagery as a single feed, creating an augmented reality environment.Cool.
If only the Kinect came out of the box with augmented reality. Anyone know how much Kreylos charges per hour?
Check it out below.
Source: TGdaily
