$2,000 Bounty for first open source Microsoft Kinect drivers - Update

Source: adafruit.com The team at Adafruit Industries is offering a bounty for the first open source drivers for Microsoft's Kinect hardware for its Xbox 360 gaming console. According to a post on the Adafruit blog, the first person or group to upload their code, examples and documentation to the GitHub project hosting service will win the team's first ever "X prize" project bounty.

The reward for the Kinect driver began at $1,000 but was later increased to $2,000 following Microsoft's response to CNET, which said that the company "does not condone the modification of its products". The company added that, "With Kinect, Microsoft built in numerous hardware and software safeguards designed to reduce the chances of product tampering. Microsoft will continue to make advances in these types of safeguards and work closely with law enforcement and product safety groups to keep Kinect tamper-resistant". In an update to the original announcement post, the developers now say, "Don’t make us up it to $3k".

Microsoft's Kinect for Xbox 360 was released in the US on the 4th of November (yesterday) – a European release is scheduled for the 10th of November. A complete teardown of the Kinect hardware is already available online from iFixit.

Update (09-11-10): The Adafruit team have now increased the reward for the Kinect driver to $3,000.

(crve)