Developers have been able to react to hand and other adhoc movements that are not on a touch pad or screen only very recently.

I think you can see the difference! There quite likely was a lot of excitement when SQL began to gain prominence too. Any new technology that opens up new possibilities deserves to garner a little enthusiasm.

Of course the business benefits from a new technology like SQL are much more obvious than those from Kinect but even so it seems worthy of recognition to me.

So good job Simon Stuart converting the API and Aleks putting together a demo of it in use. Both are arguably pre-requisite steps to producing real world Kinect applications of the type that might impress Jolyon (or not, glass seems definitely half empty at present for him!).

Oh and Happy New Year. 😉

The point of TKinect is that it provides Delphi developers (ALL Delphi developers) with a new means of interfacing between the user and the application. Whether or not you choose to see it, this technology (be it “incredible” or just “new”) provides for an entirely new approach in this area, and the possibilities are limited only by your imagination.

Personally I see the words “amazing”, “incredible” and the like to be an expression of that imagination inspired in the minds of developers who can envisage a myriad of potential that this technology holds for them…. I may not necessarily agree with the word usage, but I am pleased by the spark of inspiration it has given others… why aren’t you?

As for the videos showing each baby step of development… they exist only to show that this technology is here, and what can be done with little-to-no effort. If you step back from analyzing their worth only by the face value of what is shown in these videos, you’ll see that other developers look at it and come away with ideas of their own.

Just as an example, one idea shared by many developers who have spoken to me after watching the video in this article (an idea we’re already pursuing) is that of 3D video conferencing… not 3D in the Disney sense, but 3D as a practical approach to being able to demonstrate actual tangible objects (or products) without being limited to the scope of what the individual(s) presenting the aforementioned object decide to show of it. The viewer can look around the object in any angle they desire, view it in detail and in real-time.
It might not be interesting to you, but to many it is certainly worth investigating.

I understand your frustration at the buzz surrounding some projects over others, but that’s the world we live in! Indeed, I develop a lot of stuff that never receives any praise… it doesn’t make that work any less worthy of my time, or any less of an achievement to myself personally.

I think the important thing is that TKinect isn’t an application! It is a tool enabling you to make of it what you want. As for these videos directly, they’re leading to an actual implementation of the project… something practical for many people, and surely you must see that as a positive thing?

But it’s not an “amazing demo”, it’s not “amazing” at all.

If I published a video showing the results of an SQL query against a database having spent weeks or months encapsulating an API for Delphi purposes, would words like “amazing”, “awesome”, “incredible” etc be thrown around?

Why not? The effort put in to achieve it might be the same or even greater… the potential for practical applications certainly would be far greater.

But, of course not. There would be praise for the effort put in and interest, perhaps even excitement, at what people might then be able to do with it.

But really, if I hear the words “Minority” and “Report” mentioned in Kinection with this technology just one more time… (something from which this blog post thankfully managed to refrain) well… suffice to say that the words I would want to use would fit quite nicely on those little wooden balls that feature as “hi tech output devices” in a film that features those two words in the title…

Funny how people forget about that little piece of fantasy tech … why aren’t we being assailed with videos of people making printers that output to wooden balls ?

Ah, because that is an actual application for which there is clearly no real use, where-as what we have in the form of Kinect is just a technology – no need to demonstrate an actual application when the technology itself is so sexy to demo in and of itself – let other people think of (fantasise about) the applications.

Everyone dreams of either being, or being had by, Tom Cruise I guess.

It’s all bread, circuses and dancing bears.

Hi @Jolyon,

You should first read and understand how this project started and the personal investment made by the developer on this project. This project just started and had a really nice demonstration of TKinect component, it gives a really good idea what is possible, but not only that, it also demonstrate the use of GLScene and Graphics32 library, at the end there is a lot to learn with this experience. Maybe it doesn’t apply for you, but for sure applies for many other developers.

Start following @LaKraven on twitter and see the project updates.

AMAZING
AWESOME
INCREDIBLE

Really?

Not just with this demo, but in general.

What we have in most cases is someone putting a, usually quite crude, visualisation on top of the data captured by a device designed to capture that information and expose it thru an API.

WOW – 3D SPATIAL INFORMATION !!!

Yeah – just what Kinect is designed to output… where’s the amazing, awesome achievement here?

I get that the demo’s are more visually impactful than, say, showing that you can use an SQL API to RETRIEVE DATA FROM AN SQL DATABASE!!!!!!

But come on, let’s get a sense of perspective.

Show some useful APPLICATIONS of the technology, not just yet a.n.other demonstration of the technology doing what we know it already does.

In that sense, having the API’s accessible from Delphi is great. But not worth getting all drooly over. What people DO with the API and Delphi, now THAT *might* be worth getting excited about.