Kinect: Now On PS3?

A few months ago we reported on how homebrew developers had created software that would allow Kinect to work on PC’s - in addition to unlocking the full 640x480 resolution depth buffer for increased accuracy, but now another ‘hacker’ going by the name of shantzg001 has come up with his own solution. But for Sony’s PlayStation 3.



In the above YouTube video ‘Shantzg001’ uses Microsoft’s Kinect in order to navigate the XMB menu screen using various hand gestures to do so, before finally booting up his copy of Killzone 3. It’s hardly impressive stuff, but more importantly, leads the way for others to expand on his work.

Then again, creating something awe-inspiring using the Kinect on the PS3 wasn’t the goal here at all. Instead, everything undertaken so far was simply done to show that it was possible to use the device on the console. As such, the hacker has posted the code used in the process on his website.

Rather than running homebrew code on the PS3, the hacker actually seems to be using some king of controller hub allowing you to connect a mouse and keyboard to the console in order for the Kinect to work. He then runs the device on his laptop, in which custom software remaps Kinect-based actions onto keyboard and mouse buttons, before finally being sent to his PS3. It's not a full blown hack whereby custom drivers are written specifically for the PS3. That would require a jailbroken console in order to do so.

As you might already be aware, Microsoft recently stated that their plan with Kinect was to eventually make the device open to both commercial and homebrew coders, and to that end, are releasing official PC SDK’s for the device for those purposes later this year.

The fact that Kinect can work on the PS3 makes things even more interesting, although, perhaps far less so if it does purely in the same capacity as button presses using a Dual Shock controller. And by all indications, that definitely seems to be the case here.