Modders

Normally you would buy some new gadget to use it for its true purpose - phone, games console etc.  But there are some people who buy such gadgets to deliberately dismantle them to see how they work and try to apply that technology for a completely different use.  These people are called 'modders'.

When the Wii games system came out, there was a certain modder who modified it in such a way as to make it work, not with a control that you hold in your hand, but with a headset.  The next step was when Microsoft came up with the Kinect - a gadget that responds to your movements and doesn't need a controller like the Wii.

The Kinect that tracks and follow your every move and translates that onto the screen.

In November, when the Kinect first appeared, a Mobile Robotics Team who had worked together for 5 years bought a Kinect machine for the sole purpose of taking it apart.  At first Microsoft made a big fuss about this.  Understandably, such firms as Microsoft, Sony and others are concerned about copyright and people using their designs for counterfeit goods, so modders need to be careful that they don't infringe such regulations.  Now Microsoft is embracing the efforts of the Mobile Robotics Team as they are pushing the new gadget far beyond its intended capabilities.

When they dismantled it they discovered that it doesn't need a controller as the combination of cameras, infrared sensors and a microphone track and measure players movements in 3D space.  They are now developing the gadget as a rescue robot for use in disaster areas, locating injured humans in hazardous environments.  The Kinect is used for 3D mapping and perception and is used along with an inbuilt PC in the place of a XBox. 

This surely is what they call - thinking outside the box!  The whole of this news item can be seen on http://www.bbc.co.uk/  homepage, then in Search put 'Click' and click.  Scroll down to the entry Click:26/02/2011 where you can find out about modders adapting games equipment. 

Seeing the robot, it seems like something out of Star Wars.  I wonder what the next step will be - that the robot will talk to us like R2D2 or C3PO, maybe?  But I do hope that fear of misuse and copyright infringements won't stop the modders applying such technology for good and that the big companies won't put a stop to their research.