Kinect Hacks

The development of Ready.io was primarily motivated by my fascination with integrating Microsoft Kinect's capabilities with web technologies, leveraging my expertise in web development. The Kinect's ability to visualize a user's skeleton, including the positions of wrists, elbows, shoulders, neck, and head, relative to the Kinect device itself, presented a unique opportunity to interpret physical movements as digital commands.

One of the initial projects that utilized this technology was "Area Detect," an innovative application where I used my phone as a controller to define spatial boundaries within a physical area. By moving to different corners of a designated space and using my phone to signal the Kinect, I was able to create a polygonal boundary. This boundary determined whether I was inside or outside a specific area, such as the vicinity of my desk. When inside the boundary, a lamp connected to an Arduino, which in turn was linked to the socket server, would automatically turn on. This setup exemplified the potential for Kinect to interact with physical objects in real-time, based on spatial positioning.

The ultimate vision for this technology was to implement a "Minority Report"-like control system within my kitchen, where gestures and movements would interact with a projected interface on kitchen cabinets. The Kinect device would track these movements, allowing for a hands-free control scheme over digital elements displayed on the screen. This ambitious project aimed to revolutionize interaction within a domestic environment, making digital controls more intuitive and integrated into everyday spaces.

Additionally, another project explored the creation of a 3D representation of my office, where movements detected by the Kinect could manipulate objects within this virtual space. By drawing vectors between my head and wrist, the Kinect could discern my interactions with virtual elements that had corresponding physical counterparts, such as lamps and air conditioners, within the real office space. This setup not only enhanced the immersion into a digital environment but also allowed for a novel form of interaction with physical devices, enabling control over them through gestures and movements within the defined 3D space.

These projects underscored the potential of combining Kinect's motion-sensing technology with web technologies through Ready.io, facilitating seamless interaction between physical movements and digital or physical responses. Although my relocation and life changes, such as marrying and moving in with my wife, put a pause on these endeavors, the groundwork laid by these experiments highlights the transformative possibilities of integrating motion-sensing technology into our daily environments, promising a future where digital and physical worlds converge more harmoniously.