How to make better use of a Xbox Kinect

[Produx]

Hey all,

I've always been a lil geek when it comes to things like this and last year, as soon as I heared that there were drivers (first unofficial and now also an official microsoft sdk) available to hook up a Kinect to the pc I bought one

The first time it was a bit slow with things to do with it, but now I finally got great use of the Kinect on PC and decided to give you a little demo about how I'm using it at my home studio.

[video=youtube;uvo_AGe6apo]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uvo_AGe6apo&feature=youtu.be[/video]
Nevermind the monotonous sound, this was just my first working demo with this setup, I'll keep you updated with more work as soon as it's ready.

This setup is running Reason 5.0 from Propellerheads, which is a full virtual sound studio. See it as a virtual 19inch rack for modules like synthesizers, drumcomputers, samplers, effects and more. A few midi controllers for pattern select and more direct control of some other functions in Reason.

I'm using the OpenNI Kinect drivers together with a piece of software called OSCeleton which detects my body and makes an output of my joints and bodyparts.
This output is than read by another piece of, awesome-sauce, software called Kinectar (www.kinectar.org) and turns it into normal midi signals, which are then being sent to Reason by MidiYoke to use it on it's instruments.

Et Voila, a much better use for a Kinect as to stupidly hug your virtual pets in Kinectimals

 

[Wapwap]

Nice vid!

Kinda cool all the stuff you can do with Kinect. Is this particular program just for fun, or can you actually make proper music with it? Atleast it keeps you fit in some way!

 

[Produx]

This kinectar program is actually really precise and the latency is neglectable.
Since it sends out simple midi signals you can hook it up to any piece of software or hardware that works with midi, Ableton, Cubase, Reason, Fruityloops, Resolume, anything that has a 'learn-from-midi' function in it. So imagine the following :

A simple controller like a Cyborg command unit strapped on your wrist for direct control and selection of patterns, tracks, whatever sound, instrument or effect you want.
(an example picture of this controller : http://techgage.com/reviews/saitek/cyborg_command_unit/cyborg_command_unit_13.png)
Combined with this kinectar to influence the sounds, instruments and effects while this kinectar is also connected to a VJ setup which takes the standard image from the kinect input, combines it with weird spacey video on the big screen so people really see you're influencing the sound and video with your body movements.

This can really be used for live performances if you ask me, the software is professionally enough for this.

 

[Produx]

Take a look at something the developer of kinectar did with his project for example :

[video=youtube;xEMbjnTJCHM]http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=xEMbjnTJCHM#![/video]