RIT Students Launch Kinect@RIT Developer Portal

Students at the Rochester Institute of Technology’s Center for Student Innovation have launched Kinect@RIT, a database of development tutorials and community projects for Microsoft's motion-tracking Kinect peripheral. Designed in collaboration with students enrolled in RIT's game design and development graduate program in the School of Interactive Games and Media, Kinect@RIT also offers historical information for gestural and motion-based game interfaces that preceded the release of Kinect. The Kinect@RIT launch coincides with Microsoft's release of an official Kinect software development toolkit aimed at hobbyists and up-and-coming game designers, addressing the device's popularity with amateur programmers and hackers. The portal was demonstrated today at the "Kinectapalooza 0.1" event on RIT's campus. Projects and tutorials currently featured at Kinect@RIT include "Kinect Flythrough Google Earth," "Playing GarageBand instruments with Kinect," "Kinect-controlled Christmas lights," and "World of Warcraft with Microsoft Kinect using FAAST and OpenNI."