Kinect Hacked For Home Automation Light Controller

Geeks are hacking the Kinect for all sorts of things all around the world. I like the Kinect most when it's used to control a robot, but there are all sorts of other cool things that the Kinect can do. One of the latest hacks comes from a geek known as Nitrogen.

The dude took the Kinect and hacked it for home automation duties. The Kinect in the hack is turned into an occupancy sensor to turn off your lights when you leave a room and turn them on when you enter. Sure, you can do this (probably for less than the Kinect's price) with normal occupancy sensors as you see in many offices, but using a Kinect is geekier.

If you were to plop down in the room the Kinect is monitoring for a long-term sedentary activity like reading, I wonder if the lights would turn off on you. The hacks also uses libfreenect library as well. Check out the video to see the system in action.

[via CrunchGear]