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Hacker Hector Martin has claimed a $3,000 bounty for creating open source drivers for Microsoft’s Xbox 360 Kinect motion tracking peripheral.
Open source hardware technical retailer Adafruit posted the “Open Kinect” bounty less than a week ago in an effort to produce drivers which would render the device usable in DIY projects.
Adafruit initially posted a bounty of $1,000 but following disparaging comments from Microsoft about “product tampering”, the firm doubled the bounty and following further comments about working closely with “law enforcement and product safety groups to keep Kinect tamper-resistant,” the retailer further increased the bounty to $3,000.
Possibly realising that legal action from Microsoft may need the assistance of an umbrella activist group with deeper pockets, Adafruit explained in a Blog post that the retailer was also adding a $2,000 donation to the Electronic Frontier Foundation.
The driver doesn’t track movement at this point but rather shows RGB images from the stereo cameras and depth information separately which was a stated goal of the prize.
Hector Martin said that he would be purchasing technical hacking tools for other members of the hacking community including members of the iPhone Dev Team hacking group and the Wii hacker group Team Twiizers.
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