I’ve been busy hacking around with Kinect, the Xbox 360 “controllerless controller” I’ve been writing a lot about recently.

Yesterday I got it up and running under Ubuntu, and after that I got a very simple “nearest object” algorithm running on it. Check out the videos below! Also – the code.

So following up from my early preview video and unboxing of Kinect earlier in the week, I’ve finally got together the video showing an actual demo that I was in control of for Microsoft’s new Xbox accessory. Check it out below! (Click through to YouTube for it in glorious HD).

Kinect is Microsoft’s new add-on for the Xbox 360, coming out on November 10th. It is a “controllerless controller” – or a “motion controller”, depending on how you want to look at it. It is in a similar vein to the Nintendo Wii’s controller or the Playstation Move, but with an extra – and awesome – twist; you don’t need to use a controller at all.

To play games with Kinect, all you need to do is place yourself in front of the TV with the Kinect sensor device aimed at you, and you’re good to go. Let the extremely complex hardware and software behind the games take over, and just interact with the games in an entirely intuitive and natural way. I’m going to write more about the technical details behind Kinect in another post, for the Robotics nerds out there!

So below I’ve embedded two videos of Kinect gameplay. The first of these is a look at a bit of in-game footage, some explanation as to how Kinect is to use and play with, and a tiny bit of technical detail (not much I promise). Following up from that is a video of the Windows Phone 7 competition at #ukpdc10, where @Daniel_Parker walked off with a Windows Phone 7 having run 2x100m.

One gift I was very happy to receive at Christmas was the Xbox 360 Wireless Steering Wheel. Quite a few people have asked me what it’s like, so here’s a brief look at it.

Xbox 360 Wireless Steering Wheel In Action

As part of my activities with Microsoft, I was asked to produce a video highlighting what you can give for Xbox 360 this Christmas. Check out the video below.