Speaker 1: Welcome to tech Stuff, a production of I Heart Radios
Speaker 1: How Stuff Works. Hey there, and welcome to tech Stuff.
Speaker 1: I'm your host, Jonathan Strickland. I'm an executive producer with
Speaker 1: How Stuff Works and I heart Radio and I love
Speaker 1: all things tech, and it's time for another classic episode
Speaker 1: of tech Stuff. This episode originally aired on August eight,
Speaker 1: two thousand and twelve. It is titled tex Stuff Hacks
Speaker 1: the Connect and this is all about the Microsoft Connect,
Speaker 1: the peripheral for the Xbox platform. And uh, back in
Speaker 1: two thousand twelve, that was still a thing. It's largely
Speaker 1: not a thing. I'll talk more about that at the
Speaker 1: end of this episode, but in the meantime, let's rejoin
Speaker 1: young Jonathan Strickland and his plucky co host Chris Palette
Speaker 1: as they talk about the Connect. Jonathan and I had
Speaker 1: been talking about things that you can do with other things. Yeah, okay,
Speaker 1: that was a little oversimplified. Basically existing technologies that could
Speaker 1: be repurposed for other means. We thought it would be
Speaker 1: fun to talk about a series of different kinds of
Speaker 1: technologies to not just uh not just say game controllers
Speaker 1: like the connect. Um So you know, this is one
Speaker 1: of those that that we're doing, and we thought this
Speaker 1: one in particular made an interesting topic because so many
Speaker 1: people have repurposed Microsoft's UM Motion sensitive controller UM and
Speaker 1: it's uh, actually for very simple reasons. It's really inexpensive
Speaker 1: compared to other ways to do this. In fact, this
Speaker 1: is very readily available. This is something that we've talked
Speaker 1: about this in a previous episode really because back when
Speaker 1: we were talked about virtual reality, Yeah, virtual reality, Uh,
Speaker 1: you know, for a while that was like the Darling
Speaker 1: phrase and technology from the late nineties. Do you remember
Speaker 1: that era where you could shoot the pterodactyl and get
Speaker 1: incredibly dizzy through the latency is choose? And the funny
Speaker 1: thing about virtual reality is it still exists, but the
Speaker 1: phrase has become so dated and associated with that big
Speaker 1: headgear and the giant gloves that you had to be
Speaker 1: wired into or the holiday. Yeah, there's a stigma there,
Speaker 1: and and the ideas have become much more refined, but
Speaker 1: they're sort of augmented reality or just virtuality, virtual environment
Speaker 1: sometimes of environments. But yeah, the connect is it is
Speaker 1: one of those things that sort of bridge the gap
Speaker 1: between the real world and what you see on the
Speaker 1: computer or on the TV. Right and like you said,
Speaker 1: it's it's readily available, and it's an expensive That was
Speaker 1: the big problem that virtual environment scientists and and and
Speaker 1: pioneers were running into is the fact that they could
Speaker 1: build the software, but designing the hardware was a lot
Speaker 1: more difficult, because you're talking about an incredibly expensive process
Speaker 1: to prototype something and then build out a working version
Speaker 1: of it and then go into mass production. If you
Speaker 1: ever want to go beyond just a laboratory experiment, that's
Speaker 1: that's hard to do. And so virtual environment folks often
Speaker 1: end up looking to the world of video games to
Speaker 1: repurpose the equipment that is made as just a form
Speaker 1: of entertainment so that they can use it in their
Speaker 1: own projects. So we've seen this with things like the
Speaker 1: we controller, uh, the Sony move controller, as well as
Speaker 1: the connect. It's one of those very easy to get
Speaker 1: your hands on pieces of technology. Yep, yep, um. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Those early uh, those early devices required you to uh
Speaker 1: put on glasses or wear a helmet that had a
Speaker 1: display that you could see so that you knew what
Speaker 1: you were doing in this virtual world. You had to
Speaker 1: have some kind of something on your body, uh, often
Speaker 1: gloves or some kind of sensors. That would relay information
Speaker 1: to the computer generating this virtual world. Usually it would
Speaker 1: be a combination of something you were holding or wearing.
Speaker 1: Plus the headmild display would have some tracking in it
Speaker 1: as well for head tracking. And in some cases you'd
Speaker 1: have to be on some kind of virtual environment too.
Speaker 1: You'd have to be on a treadmill or something that
Speaker 1: would track your movements or would make it seem like
Speaker 1: you were walking in this virtual environment. And as you
Speaker 1: can imagine, this is all really expensive. Um. The newer
Speaker 1: systems that that we use now are used infrared or
Speaker 1: or cameras regular cameras to capture where you are. They
Speaker 1: map out the room, they know and they know what's
Speaker 1: going on in your actual physical environment where you are.
Speaker 1: And um, you don't have to necessarily be wired in
Speaker 1: like you used to be a lot of it's also
Speaker 1: using Bluetooth or or WiFi to communicate, Uh, makes life
Speaker 1: so much more easy. And plus we're talking about consoles
Speaker 1: that are much more powerful. Though then the computers were
Speaker 1: back in the old you know, even in the days
Speaker 1: when people were building virtual environments and they're building those
Speaker 1: first applications. The consoles that we have today are in
Speaker 1: many ways comparable or sometimes superior to the equipment that
Speaker 1: they were using back then. So let's talk a little
Speaker 1: bit about the connect, what makes it work and how
Speaker 1: it is able to detect depth, which is I mean,
Speaker 1: that's the that's the key to many of the connect
Speaker 1: hacks is the fact that the connect is able to
Speaker 1: map out a three D virtual environment based upon a
Speaker 1: physical space. Thankfully, I found a really cool diagram in
Speaker 1: an article by Jason Tan's called connect Hackers are Changing
Speaker 1: the future of robotics. Um, the connect is a wired device. Um,
Speaker 1: But attached to that wire are some actually pretty simple electronics. Um.
Speaker 1: It's got an array of microphones, right, video camera, video camera,
Speaker 1: color camera. As a matter of fact, Um, it's got
Speaker 1: an infrared emitter, yes, which I will explain what that
Speaker 1: does in a minute. Um, and a sensor as well
Speaker 1: to pick up what that emitter is, uh, the reflections
Speaker 1: of that of the stuff that the emitter is spreading out. Yea. Yeah.
Speaker 1: It's also got a depth camera, which essentially creates a
Speaker 1: map of the room. And it's got a series of well,
Speaker 1: it's got a tilt motor in it yea, to allow
Speaker 1: the device itself to change its own uh. Perspective really,
Speaker 1: which is very useful and lots of different applications also,
Speaker 1: so you can get go connecting and guess, okay, no,
Speaker 1: it doesn't. How can the connect detect huh? A three
Speaker 1: dimensional environment? So you know, with a three D camera,
Speaker 1: the way we would normally make a three D movie
Speaker 1: is that you would have a camera that would have
Speaker 1: two sets of lenses set apart from one another in
Speaker 1: such a way so that two different sets of m
Speaker 1: just could be combined. Uh. And so when we watch it,
Speaker 1: our brains do the work and put it all together,
Speaker 1: and it makes the illusion of three D. Right. The
Speaker 1: two cameras are spaced about the average with of human eye,
Speaker 1: so that that it creates that illusion of depth because
Speaker 1: it it takes two images um set apart and about
Speaker 1: that with and it makes us believe. It makes our
Speaker 1: brains think that it's in three D right, right, And
Speaker 1: each each set of images goes to one of our eyes. Right.
Speaker 1: So that's why people who have vision problems with one
Speaker 1: eye or what often have difficulty perceiving a three D
Speaker 1: film because for it to really work, both eyes have
Speaker 1: to receive their individual sets of information. That's why three
Speaker 1: D glasses are the way they are, it's to filter
Speaker 1: out the other set of images so that only one
Speaker 1: set goes to each eye. Well, that's not how the
Speaker 1: connect does this. The connect has that emitter and the
Speaker 1: sensor or the depth camera to do this. And what's
Speaker 1: going on is that Imagine that you've got your your
Speaker 1: living room set up, okay, and you've got your connect
Speaker 1: connected to your Xbox three six so imagined. Alright, so
Speaker 1: you're standing in front of the connect. How does the
Speaker 1: connect tell that you are a three dimensional person? Because
Speaker 1: remember when a regular video camera, you're getting a flattened image.
Speaker 1: That's that's the real problem with with a basic cameras
Speaker 1: that it flattens everything out. It does not detect depth.
Speaker 1: The only que we have visually is essentially the uh perspective,
Speaker 1: which is why and the Lord of the Rings movies,
Speaker 1: when you had characters standing really far away from characters
Speaker 1: who are really close to the camera. That created the
Speaker 1: forced perspective illusion that one character was larger significantly than
Speaker 1: another character. Uh happens all the time in films. Well,
Speaker 1: the way the Connect gets around this is that emitter
Speaker 1: that I infrared emitter says out essentially a grid that
Speaker 1: is made up of infrared light. Now we cannot see
Speaker 1: infrared light, so we do not perceive this, right, It's
Speaker 1: outside the visible spectrum for human beings unless you're an
Speaker 1: alpha a dwarf from advanced stages in the Dragons, in
Speaker 1: which case you might be able to see this, but
Speaker 1: you're probably not playing Xbox if you're one of those,
Speaker 1: unless it's skyrin anyway. So the this grid gets projected
Speaker 1: over the physical environment. Well, when the grid encounters a
Speaker 1: physical object, it's deformed. The grid itself is deformed, not
Speaker 1: the object. The object stays the same, otherwise we would
Speaker 1: have a lot more to talk about with the connect.
Speaker 1: So the grid deforms when it contacts comes into contact
Speaker 1: with a physical object. The depth camera measures the deformities
Speaker 1: that are within this grid and can interpret that as
Speaker 1: objects that are a certain distance from the connect. So
Speaker 1: as it tracks the changes in these deformities, it text
Speaker 1: player movement. So when you move your arm, that grid
Speaker 1: is going to change, and the depth sensor is going
Speaker 1: to to capture those changes, send that information to a
Speaker 1: processor which then interprets those changes as various commands. So,
Speaker 1: for example, if it's a game where you shove your
Speaker 1: hand out in order to make a character shoot a gun.
Speaker 1: Then what happens is the uh, the grid will be
Speaker 1: deformed as your hand goes closer to the camera on
Speaker 1: the or the to the infrared emitter. Really from the connect,
Speaker 1: that grid deforms in a certain way. The depth sensor
Speaker 1: camera detects it and then sends the appropriate command or
Speaker 1: the or the data to the processor which process of
Speaker 1: the appropriate command for the game. So that's the basics
Speaker 1: behind the depth sensing technology of the connect. There are
Speaker 1: a lot of other sensors out there. They use similar technology,
Speaker 1: not all of them are using that grid approach. Because
Speaker 1: one of the um downsides to this is that the
Speaker 1: closer you get to the camera, the less accurate this
Speaker 1: depth sensing technology is because the grid is of the
Speaker 1: squares within that grid are a certain size. So as
Speaker 1: you get closer and closer, you are deforming less of
Speaker 1: the grid with your various movements because your your movements
Speaker 1: are taking place more within the empty space of the
Speaker 1: box as opposed to the various intersecting lines. If that
Speaker 1: makes any sense, No, it does, Um and uh it's
Speaker 1: funny because this this technology is we think about it.
Speaker 1: This this this technology is designed to be used in
Speaker 1: the living room as part of a game system. Um.
Speaker 1: It's it's designed to be inexpensive so people can afford it,
Speaker 1: but still to be sophisticated. Um. And that's why. Um
Speaker 1: and it was designed by Microsoft, which is why people
Speaker 1: want to hack it. Um. Actually, I think that's probably
Speaker 1: a lesser reason, but yeah, I'm a motivating factor for
Speaker 1: some people, I think. I think the motivating factor is
Speaker 1: mainly that it's a cool technology that can do a
Speaker 1: lot of stuff. But the fact that Microsoft is the
Speaker 1: one behind it may give some people a little extra
Speaker 1: motivation that that. Yeah, that's that that slightly turned up
Speaker 1: smile and right. Um, no, it's it's available in many
Speaker 1: many places. Um and uh you know that's that's sort
Speaker 1: of what provided the impetus for sort of a competition
Speaker 1: to see who could hack into it first and make
Speaker 1: sense of the the communications. Right. So the Connect launched
Speaker 1: officially on November four, and then immediately as when we're
Speaker 1: recording it, right, and immediately there was this this challenge issued.
Speaker 1: It was like a bounty essentially for the first people
Speaker 1: to to really hack the Connect Microsoft. Uh. The initial
Speaker 1: reaction from the company was negative. The come be the
Speaker 1: officials originally when news was breaking about people trying to
Speaker 1: hack the connects, said that they were, uh, they were
Speaker 1: not in favor of people modifying their products, and in fact,
Speaker 1: they would work with law enforcement officials to try and
Speaker 1: keep people from tampering with the connect Yes, but at
Speaker 1: that point, if you think about it, the the Xbox
Speaker 1: three sixty had been out before, um, before Nintendo's Wii system,
Speaker 1: and a lot of people have dismissed the Wii as
Speaker 1: being a lightweight, didn't have high deaf uh you know,
Speaker 1: not not full ten eight high deaf, and it was
Speaker 1: seen as a game system for casual gamers, which among
Speaker 1: amongst a certain subset of hardcore gamers, that has a
Speaker 1: stigma right for a hardcore gamer for some, not all
Speaker 1: because I'm a hardcore gamer in many ways, but I
Speaker 1: don't share this particular opinion, but for some hardcore gamers,
Speaker 1: they view it as it's not a quote unquote real
Speaker 1: gaming system because it doesn't cater to their particular gaming preferences, right, right,
Speaker 1: And you know, we've talked about this on on multiple
Speaker 1: podcast so I don't want to get into it in
Speaker 1: in great depth, um, but I think that uh, the
Speaker 1: success of the weeze control system using the motion Wireless
Speaker 1: Motion Control system, UH, surprised both Sony and Microsoft. UH.
Speaker 1: And then Microsoft was the first to come out with
Speaker 1: its own upgrade to the three sixty, which you know
Speaker 1: wasn't actually the three sixty was actually the Connect itself.
Speaker 1: UM and we we heard about this um as project
Speaker 1: at all back in the in the early days of
Speaker 1: the system. But then they released the Connect and it
Speaker 1: was immensely successful from the get go as far as
Speaker 1: the the Xbox three sixty because it gave you all
Speaker 1: kinds of new ways to interact with the system and
Speaker 1: the games. It's sold like hotcakes. It became the fastest,
Speaker 1: uh fastest ever selling device to get broke all the
Speaker 1: records at the time of its release. Now I should
Speaker 1: add that before we get a ton of listener mail
Speaker 1: and responses to this. There have been some criticisms about
Speaker 1: the Microsoft support of the Connect, saying that perhaps there
Speaker 1: aren't quite as many games to support the device as
Speaker 1: people would prefer, but it's still been an incredible resource
Speaker 1: for hackers. Yes so so, maybe not as much for
Speaker 1: hardcore video gamers. Although there are some great Connect games
Speaker 1: out there, it's just that some connect some people say like, okay, well,
Speaker 1: the added benefit of the Connect hasn't really been fully
Speaker 1: realized in the game space, but it is it's an
Speaker 1: incredible tool for hackers. Yeah, Microsoft, Microsoft came out with
Speaker 1: a really nifty device in the Connect, And the only
Speaker 1: reason I mentioned that bit of background was um I
Speaker 1: think it may have played into their Microsoft's response to
Speaker 1: the hacker community doing this because, as Jonathan mentioned, a
Speaker 1: moment ago, they said, no, we this is a proprietary device.
Speaker 1: We do not want anybody mucking around with it and
Speaker 1: hacking it. It is designed for the Xbox three sixty
Speaker 1: And then a very short time later, like basically they
Speaker 1: had the weekend to think about it. It was so
Speaker 1: so it launched on November four. They shortly after launched
Speaker 1: discussed the idea of we do not want people hacking
Speaker 1: with this. But on November nineteen, there was period of
Speaker 1: time right there was a there was a developer for
Speaker 1: the Connect who specifically said that they left the Connect
Speaker 1: open by design, it was meant to be a hackable device,
Speaker 1: and Microsoft got behind that at that point. I think
Speaker 1: I think in part they saw what the public opinion was,
Speaker 1: and you know, they probably also learned from other companies,
Speaker 1: maybe not mistakes, but their approaches to this same sort
Speaker 1: of thing, like a famous one Sony's PS three. Yes,
Speaker 1: the original run of the PS three allowed you to
Speaker 1: uh to load up a Linux based operating system to
Speaker 1: the PS three, turning it into a very powerful computer.
Speaker 1: And if you've got a whole bunch of them together,
Speaker 1: you could make essentially what was equivalent to a supercomputer
Speaker 1: running on this alternate operating system. But then in later
Speaker 1: iterations of the p S three, later models, Sony removed
Speaker 1: that they first they began to send out patches to
Speaker 1: the firmware so that it would prevent you from loading
Speaker 1: in that operating system on the older models, and then
Speaker 1: the newer models just had no support for it at all.
Speaker 1: And Sony caught a lot of flak from a lot
Speaker 1: of different hackers and computer scientists saying, you've just taken
Speaker 1: away a tool that was incredibly powerful and affordable that
Speaker 1: would have done a lot of good, and now we
Speaker 1: can't do that anymore. And clearly the military, the military
Speaker 1: was using PS three's as well in this case because
Speaker 1: they were they were inexpensive compared to the other kinds
Speaker 1: of supercomputer quote unquote supercomputer material or hardware. They they
Speaker 1: were looking into um and it was easy to do so.
Speaker 1: And that's why the hacker community with Microsoft now blessing,
Speaker 1: they've said, you know, okay, let's do this. Yeah. I
Speaker 1: think I think I think that I think Microsoft realized
Speaker 1: I said, you know, this is First of all, it's
Speaker 1: a losing battle because hackers are gonna hack. Second of all,
Speaker 1: it's better, it's a better pr move if we support
Speaker 1: it then if we don't. And third they may have
Speaker 1: just again, they may have just honestly rethought it and
Speaker 1: came to the conclusion of this makes way more sense.
Speaker 1: First of all, we're gonna sell way more connects if
Speaker 1: we actually support this community, and you never know what
Speaker 1: can come out of it. And some phenomenal stuff has
Speaker 1: come out of the hacking community. And uh, and some
Speaker 1: of it came out almost immediately, like like within within
Speaker 1: a couple of weeks of the connect becoming a product
Speaker 1: that you could actually buy off the store shelf and
Speaker 1: bring it home, you started seeing some really innovative hacks
Speaker 1: using it. Yeah. Now, also just as a mitigating factor
Speaker 1: three a or three and a half on your scale. Uh.
Speaker 1: Microsoft also realized that the proprietary information inside the connect
Speaker 1: is remaining proprietary. The people the things that the hackers
Speaker 1: are are doing basically just use the signals from the connect.
Speaker 1: We found ways to use to write software for and
Speaker 1: use the signals from the connect, and they're not actually
Speaker 1: getting into the stuff that's truly proprietary about the connect.
Speaker 1: And so Microsoft went, We're really there's nothing to be
Speaker 1: afraid of, um, which is very cool. It's not like
Speaker 1: it's not like hackers are trying to create a cheaper
Speaker 1: version of the connect and sell that or reverse engineer it. Yeah,
Speaker 1: they're not, they're not doing that. But let's talk about
Speaker 1: the stuff that they are doing. There's so many amazing things,
Speaker 1: all kinds of things. So they fall into two general
Speaker 1: broad categories. Usually there are quite a few that fit
Speaker 1: into very broad categorizations, like user interfaces would be one
Speaker 1: being using the connect in various ways as a user interface,
Speaker 1: which is not a big surprise. I mean, that's the
Speaker 1: original intended use of the connect. It's a user interface
Speaker 1: for the Xbox three sixty. But there are people who
Speaker 1: have designed it to be a user interface for lots
Speaker 1: of other stuff, everything from a computer where you're just
Speaker 1: using gesture controls and voice controls to interact with the
Speaker 1: computer two robotics. I showed a video to Chris and
Speaker 1: our producer Tyler just before we went live on this podcast,
Speaker 1: talking about a project that created a robotic trash can
Speaker 1: and it was a very clever approach and and it
Speaker 1: wasn't It was using to connect in a way I
Speaker 1: just did not. It didn't occur to me it Uh.
Speaker 1: Actually it mirrors what happened with the Microsoft connect Um
Speaker 1: in that, uh, people saw a challenge and they rose
Speaker 1: to meet the challenge. It was a based off a
Speaker 1: commercial for what gum mints? Mints? Okay, it was commercial
Speaker 1: that the idea of being that it shows a guy
Speaker 1: at a typewriter and a typewriter kids, ask your parents
Speaker 1: because it's got a typewriter and pulling out a sheet
Speaker 1: of paper from the typewriter and crumpling it up and
Speaker 1: throwing it behind his back and does this does this
Speaker 1: a couple of times working on a project, and he's
Speaker 1: just coming up with drafts that don't match to his expectations,
Speaker 1: so each one he pulls out and throws away and
Speaker 1: then he then he takes He's very inaccurate, right right,
Speaker 1: So yeah, it cuts behind him, and there's just all
Speaker 1: these little crumpled pieces of paper on the floor. Then
Speaker 1: he eats a couple of mints, crumples up the next
Speaker 1: piece of paper, throws it behind him, and then the
Speaker 1: trash can moves to intercept where the paper is coming
Speaker 1: from and catches the paper. Right. Yeah, it says that
Speaker 1: it will make you The mints will make you sharper.
Speaker 1: Actually seems like they should. He's apparently been feeding the
Speaker 1: mints trash can. But yeah, so so commercial. Some some
Speaker 1: some robotics and computer scientists types decided to try and
Speaker 1: recreate that moving trash can. So they built a robotic
Speaker 1: base that had three wheels on it that would allow
Speaker 1: the the base to move in any given direction at
Speaker 1: a pretty good clip, as as the videos shows. Then
Speaker 1: they built a essentially a trash can chassis that fits
Speaker 1: over that, so so it disguises the fact that there's
Speaker 1: this base with wheels on it. Just from a casual glance,
Speaker 1: it looks like a trash can that goes all the
Speaker 1: way to the floor. There's actually just a little bit
Speaker 1: of clearance so that the wheels can move around. Yes, yes,
Speaker 1: they obviously were very careful in their measurements because it
Speaker 1: fits directly over the robot base and you cannot tell
Speaker 1: just from a casual glance that there's a robot inside
Speaker 1: the trash can. And I'm assuming they probably made a
Speaker 1: false bottom too to cover the robot. They didn't show
Speaker 1: that part, but they they did show that they were
Speaker 1: actually machining these parts like they were using us. Yeah. So, uh,
Speaker 1: the the remote control aspect, they hooked up to a
Speaker 1: computer and they wrote some software and they used a
Speaker 1: connect sensor. They mounted it to the wall. So what
Speaker 1: the connect censor does is it essentially makes a three
Speaker 1: D map of the room, right, so it's able to
Speaker 1: detect depth and and direction and movement. And what they
Speaker 1: did was they created a program so that when you
Speaker 1: tossed any small object through this space, the connect would
Speaker 1: detect the arc of that particular object and plot out
Speaker 1: where it was going to land, send a command to
Speaker 1: this robotic trash can, which would intercept that path and
Speaker 1: catch the object. So this has to happen really fast.
Speaker 1: It has to detect the arc, plotted out its course,
Speaker 1: send the information to the robot, and the robot has
Speaker 1: to have time to move to the right location to
Speaker 1: catch it. And we were watching the video is probably
Speaker 1: on average, the trash can is probably moving three or
Speaker 1: four ft, right, maybe three ft let's let's say three Yeah,
Speaker 1: So it's um but it's still pretty impressive to to
Speaker 1: watch them toss various objects into the air and the
Speaker 1: trash can moves to intercept and catch it, and you think, well,
Speaker 1: that's kind of a ridiculous use of the Connect. I mean,
Speaker 1: but it shows that the three D mapping technology uh
Speaker 1: within this device can be used for some really really
Speaker 1: creative um uh projects. And there I've already shared the
Speaker 1: video of this trash can on our Facebook page, but
Speaker 1: I'll be sure to tweet it out to uh so
Speaker 1: you guys can You may have already seen it, but
Speaker 1: I just was so amused at that particular use of
Speaker 1: the Connect. We have a bit more to say about
Speaker 1: the Microsoft Connect and how it works, but first let's
Speaker 1: go and take a quick break to thank our sponsor.
Speaker 1: VS Robotics engineers have built this robotics trash can robotic
Speaker 1: trash can for fun to meet the challenge that they perceived.
Speaker 1: It wasn't even a real challenge. With perceived challenge of
Speaker 1: doing this because they saw it on the commercial I
Speaker 1: thought it was cool at least that that's what we
Speaker 1: can guess. We don't read the it's it's produced out
Speaker 1: of Asia, and neither of us read the language that
Speaker 1: they wrote everything down in. But that's what that's our interpretation. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so and okay, so they've they've it's proof of concept.
Speaker 1: If you will, it can be done. But what if
Speaker 1: you had a a real challenge. You've had somebody who
Speaker 1: uh needed help. For example, um, they were suffering from
Speaker 1: dementia or some kind of physical impairment that kept them
Speaker 1: from interacting with their world in a way that that
Speaker 1: you know, the typical person would. So let's say, uh,
Speaker 1: they have this h a chair based on this technology,
Speaker 1: and somebody who might have trouble sitting down and the
Speaker 1: chair moved slightly to the left to make sure that
Speaker 1: they're going to sit squarely in the chair instead of
Speaker 1: missing it and hitting the floor and needing assistance getting up.
Speaker 1: Sure you could, and you could use the technology developed
Speaker 1: by Microsoft to connect to and this this software and
Speaker 1: the technology developed by these guys apparently just playing around
Speaker 1: and use it for something practical in the real world.
Speaker 1: So honestly, I just messing around on the top of
Speaker 1: my head as you were describing that, I was thinking, Yeah,
Speaker 1: it could could be silly, but it could be used
Speaker 1: for something really useful. Yeah, and that's just something I
Speaker 1: you know, well, and there's there are plenty of other
Speaker 1: examples of of this being a user interface, for example,
Speaker 1: like the one that I talked about earlier, where you're
Speaker 1: navigating a computer system using UH gestures, kind of like
Speaker 1: the old Minority Report approach, except instead of being projected
Speaker 1: in front of you, it's you know, it's on a screen,
Speaker 1: but you're you're moving your hands to just your control
Speaker 1: whatever it is you're looking at. UM. That's AH. And
Speaker 1: and of course that's something that Microsoft itself has taught
Speaker 1: about the possibility UH that you know, we would see
Speaker 1: a connect like sensor being built into computers in the future,
Speaker 1: and their versions of Windows would support that. And if
Speaker 1: you look at something like Windows eight, it's not hard
Speaker 1: to imagine that just based on the metro layout that
Speaker 1: they have, and it does already work on computers. You
Speaker 1: can use a connect for computer gaming as well as
Speaker 1: for the Xbox three sixty. So it's you know, hey,
Speaker 1: we're getting close to that word that you haven't used
Speaker 1: in some time. Yeah, there's another cool use of connect
Speaker 1: I saw was the gestural spatial mixer. Did you see
Speaker 1: this the gestural spatial mixer mixer? Yeah, it's a student.
Speaker 1: Unfortunately I wasn't able to get the information about his
Speaker 1: name because the blog I was looking at didn't didn't
Speaker 1: list it. But it was this graduate student who had
Speaker 1: designed a program where you could play multiple tracks for uh.
Speaker 1: Let's say. Let's say let's say you've created at a
Speaker 1: music track and it's got various channels in it, okay,
Speaker 1: and and you've got a multi speaker set up. So
Speaker 1: he was using I think an array of speakers where
Speaker 1: there's something like six of them. He had a connect
Speaker 1: hack where he had designed the software and he was
Speaker 1: using the connect two manipulate the music so that you
Speaker 1: could isolate channels. So if you just want to listen
Speaker 1: to one channel within that entire music track, you could
Speaker 1: you could even move that channel from one speaker to another.
Speaker 1: So let's say that you know, I just want this
Speaker 1: to come from the left side, I'm going to move
Speaker 1: it to the two speakers furthest to the left, and
Speaker 1: it's going to not even beyond the four speakers on
Speaker 1: the right. Um, you could do that and you could
Speaker 1: change the volume, and you could make it sound like
Speaker 1: it was the music was coming from nearby or far away.
Speaker 1: It would add an extra effects for that kind of stuff.
Speaker 1: So he was here far so he was doing all
Speaker 1: of this in real time, just manipulating the music physically.
Speaker 1: So it's almost like being the conductor of an orchestra,
Speaker 1: except of course, you know that certain things would always
Speaker 1: play out the same way, whether he wasn't affecting the
Speaker 1: the speed of the playback or anything like that, but
Speaker 1: volume and some other effects as well as where the
Speaker 1: music appeared. He had that all in his demo. Also,
Speaker 1: the flutes are more likely to be in tune. Uh. Sorry,
Speaker 1: that wasn't very nice. Whatever you're you're a drummer. You
Speaker 1: cannot make jokes about other musicians. I'm sorry what I
Speaker 1: was drooling on something? Anyway, Yes, I can we all
Speaker 1: make jokes about one another anyhow. Um yeah, I mean
Speaker 1: that's that's that's the idea of being able to do
Speaker 1: that is is fascinating. I've seen, uh, quite a lot
Speaker 1: of of those kinds of things, but they're typically done
Speaker 1: with infrared light or you break a light beam to
Speaker 1: make that happen, and the idea of using the connect
Speaker 1: for that purpose. Yeah, and the and the light beam
Speaker 1: stuff tends to be a lot more limited. You know,
Speaker 1: you don't have the versatility that you would with a connect. Uh,
Speaker 1: there was. We actually have an article about some connect
Speaker 1: hacks as well as an article about how the connect
Speaker 1: itself works. So you should go to how stuff works
Speaker 1: dot com if you want more information. The article on
Speaker 1: how the connect works is helpful, and the hacks are
Speaker 1: kind of fun too. One of the ones mentioned talks about, um,
Speaker 1: well this this isn't actually in our article. This is
Speaker 1: one of the other ones I discovered was a connect
Speaker 1: hack that was hooked up to Tesla coils. Actually, I
Speaker 1: think this one is in our article. Um and the
Speaker 1: Tesla coils. If you don't know, these are things that
Speaker 1: create high voltage electrical currents. You could change the frequency
Speaker 1: of those currents. And it's this sparking thing that you
Speaker 1: often see in old science fiction movies that has a
Speaker 1: standard part of a mad scientist layer. It's not the
Speaker 1: Jacob's letterer, but was gonna says, that's more of a
Speaker 1: jacket's letters. Um. But now the Tesla coils, it's this, uh,
Speaker 1: you know, this massive thing it can be a massive
Speaker 1: thing that shoots out deadly sparks. Um you don't want
Speaker 1: to get hit by them. We've we've seen groups like
Speaker 1: Architect that used Tesla coils to create music. Well. At
Speaker 1: maker Fair the UK, a guy named Tom Wyatt headed
Speaker 1: up a team where they showed off a connect that
Speaker 1: they hooked up to Tesla coils and they used the
Speaker 1: motions that they would The connect would pick up motions
Speaker 1: that Wyatt and his team would make and translate that
Speaker 1: into different voltage frequencies for the Tesla coil, so you
Speaker 1: can make the Tesla coil emit electricity at different frequencies,
Speaker 1: which actually has a different sound to it. That's how
Speaker 1: Architect makes music with these things. They program in specific
Speaker 1: frequencies so that they can create tones. So one of
Speaker 1: my favorites is they use it to create a cover
Speaker 1: of the Doctor Who theme, which is pretty ofesome. I've
Speaker 1: also seen a really good one where they used a
Speaker 1: special suit they could wear which allows the person to
Speaker 1: actually be hit by the uh the electrical currents without
Speaker 1: frying uh. And they did the Imperial March from Star Wars,
Speaker 1: so it looks like he's shooting electricity from his hands.
Speaker 1: As the theme is playing really subtle anyway, Um, that
Speaker 1: was a really cool one. Uh. They the article also
Speaker 1: talked about one from the University of Washington. They used
Speaker 1: the connect when in the use of robotic surgeries. Now
Speaker 1: these are surgeries that are not done on robots but
Speaker 1: by robots, so so sometimes that's far more common than
Speaker 1: it used to be. Yeah, this is when you're do
Speaker 1: is tell usurgery right where the the actual surgeon is
Speaker 1: in one location and is controlling robotic implements to perform
Speaker 1: a physical surgery that could be half a world away. Well,
Speaker 1: the use of the connect is meant to do things
Speaker 1: like create a virtual map of where a person's organs are.
Speaker 1: The idea being that when you're using a robotic tool
Speaker 1: to cut a person or whatever, whatever the surgical procedure is,
Speaker 1: make an incision, should you well that would be one
Speaker 1: of them. But should you reach, should you start to
Speaker 1: approach the area of an organ, it would send the
Speaker 1: signal because the connectors mapped this out in the text,
Speaker 1: that you're getting close to one of those areas, send
Speaker 1: a signal that would give you some sort of haptic feedback,
Speaker 1: so you would actually feel a warning saying hey, you
Speaker 1: don't want to. You know, you gotta be careful because
Speaker 1: now you're approaching a vital area because again, when you
Speaker 1: don't have when you're when you're distanced like that, it's
Speaker 1: a lot harder to tell, you know, how close you
Speaker 1: are to something like that. So that's a pretty interesting
Speaker 1: use of connecting or something that was used for video
Speaker 1: games could potentially be used to save lives. Yes, yes, definitely.
Speaker 1: So um you realize that this is uh actually pretty
Speaker 1: easy to do when you get right down to it.
Speaker 1: I was looking at um uh articles about how to
Speaker 1: hack with the connect and basically all it requires is
Speaker 1: a computer and a connect. Um you might need a
Speaker 1: power supply for the connect if you're hooking it up
Speaker 1: to a computer if you don't have one, because they
Speaker 1: don't necessarily come with them if you're buying the one
Speaker 1: that comes with the the Xbox three sixty. Um, but
Speaker 1: you know they're there. There's a wealth of information online
Speaker 1: and you can look it up in a search engine
Speaker 1: for connect tax and you can find the software that
Speaker 1: you need, and it depends on what you're you're doing
Speaker 1: with it. But there's already uh some pre written software
Speaker 1: available out there by other hackers who have done maybe
Speaker 1: something very close to what you're planning, UM, that you
Speaker 1: might be able to to get so it it Uh
Speaker 1: you know, there's really not a great big boundary to
Speaker 1: getting involved with it. Um. There there are plenty of
Speaker 1: things like robotics and things like this. But one of
Speaker 1: the really cool uh applications of hacking connect technology I've
Speaker 1: seen is uh someone who's using uh uh you know,
Speaker 1: they're scientists using the connect to do geographical measurements on
Speaker 1: UM on bodies and space and on on glaciers. UM
Speaker 1: found an article by Adam man Um about Ken Mankoff,
Speaker 1: who basically was doing scans of of caves using the connect. UM.
Speaker 1: Now he this is this is one of those times
Speaker 1: when the connects limitations come into play because, Uh, if
Speaker 1: if the sensor were or sensors in the connect were
Speaker 1: more or were designed to scan larger bodies instead of
Speaker 1: your living room or larger environments, let's say that um
Speaker 1: than he wouldn't have to do quite so many measurements
Speaker 1: with the connect. But um he has found that it
Speaker 1: is far cheaper to buy a connect for the computer
Speaker 1: than it would be to rent the sophisticated equipment. A
Speaker 1: lot of times they use a light detection and ranging
Speaker 1: which is light ar UM and they can use uh,
Speaker 1: you know, they can use these over you know, much
Speaker 1: longer distances, including miles, you know. But the problem is, um,
Speaker 1: you know, it costs ten to two hundred thousand dollars
Speaker 1: for light ar as opposed to bucks for a connect. Now,
Speaker 1: if you guys have seen the documentary Prometheus, you know
Speaker 1: about the use of of light ar to map out
Speaker 1: things like underground caverns where they had these probes go
Speaker 1: in and use light ar to create a full virtual
Speaker 1: map of that environment. Uh. That of course is a movie,
Speaker 1: not a documentary. I make that joke all the time,
Speaker 1: but just in case you weren't familiar. But but yeah,
Speaker 1: I've seen other uses of this tech for the same
Speaker 1: of the purpose, using them for rescue robots. Essentially, you
Speaker 1: would send let's say that you have an environment that
Speaker 1: is dangerous and there may or may not be people
Speaker 1: in the environment, or perhaps some other thing that's in
Speaker 1: that environment that we should really try and get close to,
Speaker 1: but we don't know the nature of that environment. How
Speaker 1: dangerous would it be, uh, sending in a robot that's
Speaker 1: got to connect that can do this three D mapping
Speaker 1: could be very useful because it gives you an idea
Speaker 1: of what the conditions are within that environment and whether
Speaker 1: or not it is wise to send in a human
Speaker 1: to try and navigate it. Um. So yeah, I mean
Speaker 1: that that particular uses everything from geology to rescue operations.
Speaker 1: Younger Jonathan has apparently made the gesture control to put
Speaker 1: the episode on pause so that we can take a
Speaker 1: quick break to thank our sponsor. Will be right back
Speaker 1: the article also that I read also um uh talked
Speaker 1: to uh a scientist named they are mob Chovitz who
Speaker 1: wants to put uh, you know, devices maybe not necessarily
Speaker 1: the Connect, but devices like the Connect on on space
Speaker 1: exploration robots and have them fly in close to asteroids
Speaker 1: to do a map of the surface. Um. The applications
Speaker 1: for this device have really spawned, uh, quite a lot
Speaker 1: of speculation and interest among the hacker community, among and
Speaker 1: amongst serious thinkers. Then another, the two worlds don't converge. Well, no,
Speaker 1: they not necessarily, but I mean people uh yeah, I
Speaker 1: mean people who are doing this just for fun and
Speaker 1: people who are doing this for very serious reasons or
Speaker 1: or both. Um, and I'm sure they inspire one another
Speaker 1: and I'm sure that when I mean based on on
Speaker 1: what the limitations of the Connect and what it can't do,
Speaker 1: it wasn't intended to do these things. But wow, you know,
Speaker 1: he really really just didn't anticipate this coming, and it's
Speaker 1: great that it has. I have a couple of others
Speaker 1: I want to just really quickly mentioned. So one of
Speaker 1: them is a second Story Labs. They have started to
Speaker 1: use the Connect. You know, Connect has evolved as well,
Speaker 1: like the firmware has evolved over time. Microsoft built in
Speaker 1: some facial tracking capabilities that were updated to the Connect.
Speaker 1: So the original Connect wasn't as good at it, but
Speaker 1: now it's gotten much better where it can track a
Speaker 1: person's face. In fact, that's caused some people a little
Speaker 1: bit of concern. But but Second Story Labs what they
Speaker 1: did was they took this capability and they used it
Speaker 1: for an interface where, uh, they can create the illusion
Speaker 1: of a holographic display. Yeah. So you've got imagine that
Speaker 1: you've got a glass window in front of you, and
Speaker 1: to you, it looks like a three dimensional image is
Speaker 1: floating behind that glass, right, and as you move your
Speaker 1: head you can see the different parts of the of
Speaker 1: the image. Well, what's actually happening with Second Story Labs.
Speaker 1: Is approach is they're using to connect to track your
Speaker 1: facial movements so that as you move, it can display
Speaker 1: a different Uh, it can it can alter the appearance
Speaker 1: of whatever the display is showing, so that it would
Speaker 1: show you the angle, like what would happen if you
Speaker 1: were actually looking at an object from that angle. So,
Speaker 1: in other words, it's not a true hologram. It's still
Speaker 1: it's still two dimensional image, but it's adjusting on the
Speaker 1: fly as you move around so that it looks like
Speaker 1: a three dimensional image. So to your brain it might
Speaker 1: as well be three dimensional, which I think is a
Speaker 1: really creative way of getting around this whole glass is
Speaker 1: free three D thing. Yep. And it could also and
Speaker 1: I imagine it will. You know, we were talking about
Speaker 1: UM Minority Report earlier and in in the movie, Uh,
Speaker 1: you know they're walking around in interactive environments where people
Speaker 1: are talking specifically to you about things that they know
Speaker 1: about you. Um. Maybe not necessarily that Again, you were
Speaker 1: talking about the facial recognition, they could do that, um,
Speaker 1: but yeah, you might start seeing um, shopping environments that
Speaker 1: are that start talking to you. Um, you know when
Speaker 1: they say here, well, you know, there are some displays
Speaker 1: that you walk by now in their motion sensors in
Speaker 1: the display, but it's right there at the display. You
Speaker 1: can make an entire environment that knows where a person
Speaker 1: is and they say, oh, I see you're looking at
Speaker 1: the computers, Well we have these they've got these processors.
Speaker 1: Or you might have an automated salesperson talking to you
Speaker 1: about the benefits of one model over another because they
Speaker 1: know you're standing right in front of those, or you
Speaker 1: might just use them to help design better uh storefronts.
Speaker 1: Like imagine imagine having a window on a on a street,
Speaker 1: you know, sidewalk, you're you're winding on the side while
Speaker 1: you're looking into a display window. You could just as
Speaker 1: easily use a connect if it had if it had
Speaker 1: Sophiska enough tracking capabilities where it can actually track where
Speaker 1: you are looking, and you could say, all right, well
Speaker 1: we tested out this one display using this particular layout,
Speaker 1: and this is where people were looking, and that's not
Speaker 1: why we wanted them to look at. We really wanted
Speaker 1: to feature this other thing. So then we did the
Speaker 1: display a different way like this, and everyone was looking
Speaker 1: where we wanted them to. So that's the way we
Speaker 1: need to do it in order to promote whatever it
Speaker 1: is we're selling. That's just one simple way of that
Speaker 1: could be used. A connect could be used in the future.
Speaker 1: UM another cool hack that I thought was actually really
Speaker 1: really interesting and it has some really the the experiment
Speaker 1: is interesting, the potential applications are pretty phenomenal. UH. Alex
Speaker 1: Brown and Brian Brown they worked together to create a
Speaker 1: virtual realm that would allow you to interact with virtual
Speaker 1: objects that could in turn control actual physical objects in
Speaker 1: your real environment around you. So what they did was
Speaker 1: they used a programmable automation controller UH. And they had
Speaker 1: this programmable automation controller panel that had switches on it
Speaker 1: and when you turned on one switch and l e
Speaker 1: ED would come on, and when you when you hit
Speaker 1: the switch next to it, the LED would go off.
Speaker 1: So there was a physical switch that would turn that
Speaker 1: LED on or off. Okay, So then they built a
Speaker 1: virtual representation of this console in a virtual environment, and
Speaker 1: by virtually touching the switch, it would cause the physical
Speaker 1: l e ED on the real console to come on,
Speaker 1: and then by touching the other switch, it would make
Speaker 1: the light go back off. So it's just like you're
Speaker 1: touching the physical controls but you're doing it in the
Speaker 1: virtual realm. Now, imagine, let's say that you've created a
Speaker 1: entertainment complex. Okay, that is a virtual reality entertainment complex.
Speaker 1: So you, Chris, go into this virtual reality entertainment complex,
Speaker 1: and you are able to interact with this virtual environment,
Speaker 1: and as you interact in the virtual environment, physical things
Speaker 1: happen as a result of your virtual actions. So let's
Speaker 1: say it's a role playing game and you are playing
Speaker 1: in a really uh you're you're in the Arctic, and
Speaker 1: you're inside a room when you first start, but you
Speaker 1: decided to go outside. When you go outside by opening
Speaker 1: the door, it activates a fan system that blows very
Speaker 1: cold air on you so that you get the sensation.
Speaker 1: So it creates that tactile, immersive environment. That's just one
Speaker 1: example of a potential application of this sort of technology.
Speaker 1: A lot of other ones would have nothing to do
Speaker 1: with entertainment. They'd be much more practical than you know,
Speaker 1: just giving us a bit of a thrill as we
Speaker 1: play a game. But I thought that was really neat
Speaker 1: the idea of im acting your physical world through your
Speaker 1: virtual actions. See it's that that marriage or the physical
Speaker 1: and virtual that I find so fascinating. And again that's
Speaker 1: one of the reasons why I like augmented reality so much,
Speaker 1: is that idea that bringing those two worlds closer and
Speaker 1: closer together until we get to the point where you,
Speaker 1: you know, if you don't like how your day is going,
Speaker 1: you just at control of the lead. But but the
Speaker 1: connect has also been used in lots of other applications,
Speaker 1: things like digital puppetry, where people have built a digital
Speaker 1: character that they could manipulate by doing motion controls. And
Speaker 1: some of them are very much like puppetry. Like you
Speaker 1: you have the digital version of a sock puppet. Someone
Speaker 1: holds up their hand and moves their hand and then
Speaker 1: the sock puppet reacts in a very similar way. Um,
Speaker 1: it's got no strings to hold it down, and it's
Speaker 1: just virtual strings. Yeah, it's pretty interesting. And then I've
Speaker 1: even seen stuff where people have added in special effects
Speaker 1: on top of whatever their actions are in real time.
Speaker 1: So remember the connect also has a color camera in it,
Speaker 1: so it's not just this depth sensor. It's also a
Speaker 1: way of either streaming or even recording video depending on
Speaker 1: what you're doing and how you know what you have
Speaker 1: the connect hooked up too. So let's say you're streaming
Speaker 1: video on a big screen and it's capturing whatever you're
Speaker 1: doing in front of the connect and you're holding a
Speaker 1: uh like a plane dowel, right, but you've created this
Speaker 1: program that overlays a an effect on top of that dowel.
Speaker 1: So now it looks like on the screen you're wielding
Speaker 1: a lightsaber from Star Wars. And as you as you
Speaker 1: move around, the video version of you is swinging a lightsaber,
Speaker 1: even though the real version of you swing a dowel.
Speaker 1: On the screen, it's a lightsaber. You know. That's something
Speaker 1: that I that was one of the first applications I
Speaker 1: saw actually one of the first hacks. Yeah. Well it's
Speaker 1: uh not completely unlike what they actually did in the movie. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's just all done in real time as opposed to
Speaker 1: post production. That's what's amazing is that it's done right then,
Speaker 1: you know, because I've seen I've seen people who have
Speaker 1: created their own Star Wars type videos where they've gone
Speaker 1: in and they've used some pretty sophisticated post production video
Speaker 1: software to go in and paint an object right within
Speaker 1: the software and say, anytime you see this object, overlay
Speaker 1: this effect on top of it, which is really sophisticated,
Speaker 1: and it tends to be way faster than the old way.
Speaker 1: But this is even faster. It's essentially instantaneous, which to
Speaker 1: me is phenomenal. So anyway, there are so many other
Speaker 1: hacks out there. If you just do a search online
Speaker 1: for Connect hacks, you are going to find blogs and
Speaker 1: articles and videos about amazing stuff people are doing with
Speaker 1: this basic piece of video game hardware. Yeah, if you
Speaker 1: if you've done any yourself, please let us know. We'd
Speaker 1: love to hear about it. Yeah, definitely, Yeah, I've got
Speaker 1: if you've got any information about Connect hacks you've done,
Speaker 1: or any videos or whatever, sind some links our way,
Speaker 1: because you know, will we'll be glad to take a
Speaker 1: look at it, and who knows, maybe we'll be able
Speaker 1: to post them up on Facebook and create even a
Speaker 1: gallery of of things that people have done. And that
Speaker 1: wraps up our discussion about the Connect. And as I
Speaker 1: was saying earlier, since two thousand and twelve, the Connect
Speaker 1: is pretty much gone by by. No one really talks
Speaker 1: about it anymore, no one's really developing for it anymore.
Speaker 1: And part of the reason for its failure was largely
Speaker 1: because there was a an apparent lack of compelling content
Speaker 1: for the Connect. There was initial interest in developing for it,
Speaker 1: and then it just kind of fell off. The challenges
Speaker 1: for developing for the platform We're probably too great for
Speaker 1: the returns that were being seen. And there were a
Speaker 1: lot of games that kind of gave the Connect a
Speaker 1: bad name, games that gamers just didn't really and I
Speaker 1: hate to use this word connect with and so it
Speaker 1: really just kind of floundered. It's also a shame that
Speaker 1: while it did very well in hacking circles for a while,
Speaker 1: Microsoft made some moves that made it harder for hackers
Speaker 1: to use the Connect, and they were creating all sorts
Speaker 1: of really cool implementations of the connect sensors and using
Speaker 1: them for things like machine vision, and uh, it was
Speaker 1: really compelling stuff. So it's kind of a shame that
Speaker 1: that fell apart two, but it also shows that often
Speaker 1: the hacking community will take stuff that was intended for
Speaker 1: one purpose and then repurpose it for something else and
Speaker 1: make something really incredible out of it. If you guys
Speaker 1: have suggestions for future episodes of tech Stuff, send me
Speaker 1: an email the addresses tech Stuff at how stuff works
Speaker 1: dot com, or you can pop on over to our website,
Speaker 1: that's tech stuff podcast dot com. There you're gonna find
Speaker 1: an archive of all of our episodes, including these classics.
Speaker 1: You will also find links to our presence on various
Speaker 1: social media platforms. You will find a link to our
Speaker 1: online store, where every purchase you make goes to help
Speaker 1: the show, and we greatly appreciate it, and I'll talk
Speaker 1: to you again really soon. Yeah. Tech Stuff is a
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