A developer has managed to code a sweet port that allows Microsoft’s Xbox 360 Kinect to run on an Apple Mac.
Unsurprisingly, Theo Watson modded recently released open source drivers for the hands free controller to create the port.
However, as Cory Bohon of MacLife points out, the hack is still in a relatively nascent stage, and does not yet allow a user to control much of anything.
“Currently, the video stream from the camera is able to be captured using an open source PC tool created earlier [known as] libfreenect.
“[Sure], there are still a few kinks to get worked out, but there is still hope in knowing that we may soon be able to control Mac and PC video games with this new controller. [Clearly], the potential is there, as the developer shows in the video.”
Hector Martin’s Libfreenect project page can be accessed here (git.marcansoft.com/?p=libfreenect.git), while Theo Watson’s source is available for downloaded here (theo.tw/deliver/kinect/000-libfreenect-modded-osx.zip).
“[Yes], most of the code is unchanged but there are some changes to libusb which was needed to get it running (and a few extra libusb commands) as well as some tweaking of the transfer sizes,” explained Watson.
“[But] it should be self contained and you shouldn’t need to install libusb – as the app links it directly.”
