Kinect lightsaber, and other inevitable milestones for the open-source robot eye

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What, you didn't think the Kinect open source community would just take a break for the weekend, did you? Microsoft certainly wouldn't want that, and after seeing how much shadow puppetry warmed our hearts, we wouldn't want it either! Thankfully, someone in this world can now track a wooden stick to emulate a lightsaber in real time, bringing one classic meme that much closer to actuality (and the promised Star Wars Kinect game not even parsec closer to release). If that's not enough, we also have a demo made that converts hand-waving to MIDI notes -- which, as creator Ben X notes, puts him one step closer to Ableton Live integration -- and a pretty pretty wild visual of body dysmorphic disorder (and a chubby cat) courtesy of the powerful open source Cinder library and a Vimeo user who goes by "flight404." If those were appetizer and two-part entree, respectively, our post-meal coffee would be a pretty sharp critique on Kinect Joy Ride -- where it seems, on at least one track, you can nab a bronze trophy by staying as still as humanly possible. All the footage you seek is after the break.

http://www.engadget.com/2010/11/22/k...-for-the-open/