NewsHacker Awarded $3,000 Prize for Creating the First Open Source Kinect Driver

Hacker Awarded $3,000 Prize for Creating the First Open Source Kinect Driver

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Microsoft hates this, but it is what it is. A hacker named Hector was awarded $3,000 for being the first person to create an open source Kinect driver.

Kinect is a “controller-free gaming and entertainment experience” created by Microsoft for the Xbox 360. Its software is closed-source and proprietary.

About a week ago a company called Adafruit offered a $1,000 bounty to the first person to hack the device and build an open source driver for it. Microsoft got snippy and the company upped the bounty to $2,000 and eventually to $3,000.

Well, Hector has won the $3,000 bounty. He’s the first person to write an open source driver for the Kinect and he doesn’t even own an Xbox.

Hector said that he plans to invest the money in hacking tools and devices for groups of hackers he works with.

Adafruit said they will also be donating an additional $2,000 to the Electronic Frontier Foundation.





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