Open Source

The development of open source drivers for Microsoft's Kinect motion-controller is already opening up new (if not entirely unpredictable) applications for the device. This example, developed by members of the Virtopsy research project at the Institute of Forensic Medicine at the University of Bern in Switzerland, is a functional prototype using Kinect that provides users with a hands-free way to review radiological images.  Read More

Once open source drivers for Microsoft’s Kinect were created, it was inevitable the device would be put to use in a virtual sex game. With it around a month since such drivers started appearing, ThriXXX, a company responsible for a range of 3D sex games that are already compatible with a number of sex toy peripherals, has now produced a video demo of a Kinect being used to virtually fondle a number of computer generated ladies.  Read More

The race to claim the bounty offered by Adafruit for open source drivers for Microsoft’s Kinect has been run and won. The winner is hacker Hector Martin whose achievement of producing drivers to pull depth and RGB camera data from a Kinect is made even more impressive by the fact that it came just three hours after the European launch of the device.  Read More

It’s only just been released in North America and already there is a move to hack Microsoft’s Kinect motion controller to allow it to be used on systems other than the Xbox 360. As part of its Open Kinect (OK) project, New York-based open-source hardware developer, Adafruit, is offering a US$2,000 bounty to anyone who can produce some open source drivers capable of getting the RGB out and distance values captured by the USB device.  Read More

At the Toorcon 12 hacker conference in San Diego on Sunday, Seattle programmer Eric Butler introduced his Firesheep add-on for the Firefox Web browser in an effort to bring attention to the weakness of open Wi-Fi networks. In a practice known as HTTP session hijacking (or “sidejacking”) the add-on intercepts browser cookies used by many sites, including Facebook and Twitter, to identify users and allows anyone running the program to log in as the legitimate user and do anything that user can do on a particular website.  Read More

Apps for mobile devices are transforming the way we use the Internet, but some people will tell you that one big obstacle is still keeping them from reaching their full potential – the fact that specific apps can only be used on specific devices. Imagine how limiting it would be if only certain computers could use Google or eBay, and you begin to see their point. Not only does this situation limit the app selection available to consumers, but it also lessens the incentive for developers to create new apps. Webinos, however, is looking to change that. The European research consortium includes over 20 member organizations from the mobile web, consumer electronics, and automotive industries, all committed to developing an open source platform that will allow the creation of applications that can be used on multiple devices.  Read More

The lads behind Diaspora, the open source decentralized alternative to Facebook, have announced the public release of its source code to developers. The group of four students from NYU’s Courant Institute wanted to give users complete control of their details and content in response to privacy concerns regarding Facebook. Upon releasing the source code the developers say, “this is now a community project and development is open to anyone with the technical expertise who shares the vision of a social network that puts users in control.”  Read More

Earlier this year we reported how Californian robotics company Willow Garage was giving away a number of its PR2 robots to various institutions as part of its PR2 Beta program. Lucky PR2 recipients were asked to use the robot to pursue their research and development goals and share their progress with the open source robotics community so that the community as a whole can build on each other’s results. Now anyone can get in the act with Willow Garage officially announcing commercial availability of the robot. And if you’ve got a proven track record in the open source community you could be eligible for a hefty discount.  Read More

Burning Man, the popular desert music festival, is this year featuring a free, solar powered cellular network for the duration of the festival which winds up on Monday. The open source software, OpenBTS (Open Base Transceiver Station) is a low-cost replacement for traditional cell networks. It allows mobile phones to connect to each other if they're all within range of the transceiver, or to connect with any other phones with Internet connection. It utilizes a Universal Software Radio Peripheral (USRP) to create a GSM air interface on any standard GSM mobile phone. The founders of Burning Man, which began this week in Black Rock City, Nevada, have decided to trial the system by allowing the 50,000 or so attendees free access to the network.  Read More