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The tech giant risks alienating independent software developers who love its hit gaming device
ByAshlee Vance
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Bearded, clad in a hoodie, and with a mouthful of swear words, hacker Kyle Machulis took the stage last month at San Francisco music joint Rickshaw Stop. He was there to deliver a Nerd Night talk about his latest love: Microsoft's (MSFT) Kinect, a gesture-and-voice-recognition accessory for the Xbox gaming console that lets people play video games without having to hold a controller. "This thing costs $150 and is sold at GameStop," Machulis told the crowd. "Oh, s—t! We live in the future!"
Machulis serves as one of the leaders of the Open Kinect project, an ad hoc effort backed by thousands of hackers and DIY enthusiasts. They've cracked open and studied Microsoft's latest device and are now putting it to unexpected new uses, ranging from commanding robots with hand motions to performing sex acts on avatars.
The intense interest that Kinect has drummed up in geekdom presents Microsoft with an unfamiliar opportunity. At a time when Apple (AAPL), Google (GOOG), and other tech giants are vying to reach independent developers who make the ingenious software apps that have reshaped the market for things like smartphones and tablets, Microsoft has stumbled onto a direct path to them. Experts say that if Microsoft can focus the energy of that horde, the company may be able to leverage Kinect's early success and dominate the next era of human-computer interactions, in which PCs, phones, and other electronics can be controlled by body movements and voice commands instead of keyboards and mice. "Microsoft has succeeded despite themselves in creating something really cool," says Matt Asay, a prominent open-source blogger and executive at software startup Strobe. Yet a number of critics say the relationship between Microsoft and Kinect-loving geeks is already strained, and that Microsoft's early reactions to their playful tinkering suggest it could squander a once-in-a-generation opportunity. "Here was a chance to throw themselves deep into the bowels of the open-source hippy movement," Asay says. "They are kind of trying to do it, but they don't want to touch anyone in the mosh pit."
Kinect has provided Microsoft with a long-awaited consumer-electronics hit. Chief Executive Officer Steve Ballmer, speaking at the Consumer Electronics Show earlier this month, revealed that Microsoft has sold 8 million of the devices since their launch in November. Kinect has extended interest in the Xbox beyond gamers to entire families and has helped Microsoft add 5 million subscribers to Xbox Live, its online home entertainment service, since November. That's a 20 percent increase. Hundreds of millions in marketing dollars helped make Kinect the unquestioned champion of the holiday season.
The Open Kinect project was also an immediate success—albeit one without Microsoft's blessing. When Kinect appeared on store shelves, Adafruit Industries, an online seller of DIY electronics kits, offered $1,000, then $3,000, to the first person who could analyze Kinect's innards and share the information with developers at large. It took all of six days before the Kinect's secrets were cracked. "That's when things exploded," says Machulis.
Geeks around the world set to work. One strapped a Kinect to a Roomba, letting him steer the robot vacuum cleaner by waving his hand. Others used Kinect to control World Of Warcraft characters with their bodies rather than keyboards. A pair of developers projected virtual puppets onto a wall and manipulated them with hand gestures. And inevitably, there's the porn: thriXXX, a maker of 3D interactive sex games, announced a PC game that will let players massage, whip, and otherwise interact with virtual paramours.
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ByAshlee Vance
Browse Issues
Browse the BusinessWeek Archive
Bearded, clad in a hoodie, and with a mouthful of swear words, hacker Kyle Machulis took the stage last month at San Francisco music joint Rickshaw Stop. He was there to deliver a Nerd Night talk about his latest love: Microsoft's (MSFT) Kinect, a gesture-and-voice-recognition accessory for the Xbox gaming console that lets people play video games without having to hold a controller. "This thing costs $150 and is sold at GameStop," Machulis told the crowd. "Oh, s—t! We live in the future!"
Machulis serves as one of the leaders of the Open Kinect project, an ad hoc effort backed by thousands of hackers and DIY enthusiasts. They've cracked open and studied Microsoft's latest device and are now putting it to unexpected new uses, ranging from commanding robots with hand motions to performing sex acts on avatars.
The intense interest that Kinect has drummed up in geekdom presents Microsoft with an unfamiliar opportunity. At a time when Apple (AAPL), Google (GOOG), and other tech giants are vying to reach independent developers who make the ingenious software apps that have reshaped the market for things like smartphones and tablets, Microsoft has stumbled onto a direct path to them. Experts say that if Microsoft can focus the energy of that horde, the company may be able to leverage Kinect's early success and dominate the next era of human-computer interactions, in which PCs, phones, and other electronics can be controlled by body movements and voice commands instead of keyboards and mice. "Microsoft has succeeded despite themselves in creating something really cool," says Matt Asay, a prominent open-source blogger and executive at software startup Strobe. Yet a number of critics say the relationship between Microsoft and Kinect-loving geeks is already strained, and that Microsoft's early reactions to their playful tinkering suggest it could squander a once-in-a-generation opportunity. "Here was a chance to throw themselves deep into the bowels of the open-source hippy movement," Asay says. "They are kind of trying to do it, but they don't want to touch anyone in the mosh pit."
Kinect has provided Microsoft with a long-awaited consumer-electronics hit. Chief Executive Officer Steve Ballmer, speaking at the Consumer Electronics Show earlier this month, revealed that Microsoft has sold 8 million of the devices since their launch in November. Kinect has extended interest in the Xbox beyond gamers to entire families and has helped Microsoft add 5 million subscribers to Xbox Live, its online home entertainment service, since November. That's a 20 percent increase. Hundreds of millions in marketing dollars helped make Kinect the unquestioned champion of the holiday season.
The Open Kinect project was also an immediate success—albeit one without Microsoft's blessing. When Kinect appeared on store shelves, Adafruit Industries, an online seller of DIY electronics kits, offered $1,000, then $3,000, to the first person who could analyze Kinect's innards and share the information with developers at large. It took all of six days before the Kinect's secrets were cracked. "That's when things exploded," says Machulis.
Geeks around the world set to work. One strapped a Kinect to a Roomba, letting him steer the robot vacuum cleaner by waving his hand. Others used Kinect to control World Of Warcraft characters with their bodies rather than keyboards. A pair of developers projected virtual puppets onto a wall and manipulated them with hand gestures. And inevitably, there's the porn: thriXXX, a maker of 3D interactive sex games, announced a PC game that will let players massage, whip, and otherwise interact with virtual paramours.
Webmaster Forum | SEO Forum | Coding Forum | Graphics Forum</b>