Microsoft Wants To Pay You $20,000 To Hack The Kinect

Sites include Microsoft.com , Xbox.com . Published on November 30th, 2011. Written by Anthony West.

The practice of courting the enemy for some sort of benefit is nothing new—especially in the tech space. Apple recently hired a young programmer who managed to successfully hack its iPhone and now it seems Microsoft is getting in on the act. The maker of the Xbox 360 Kinect is reportedly offering $20,000 to developers who can tinker with the Kinect and produce creative solutions for their businesses using the popular hands-free video game accessory.

This new move is a bold one from Microsoft as the company in the past has never encouraged the hacking of its Kinect technology outside of non-commercial purposes. Many are lauding Microsoft for the move; however some see some cynicism in the approach. For some Microsoft is really just leveraging the talents of hackers and developers in an effort to make the product itself better. In many respects they could be right—Twitter for example put many of its third party developers out of business by introducing its own propriety versions of products created with the use of its API.

For now though, we’ll just have to watch and see how Microsoft’s $20,000 offer develops. There is room for 10 winners who will get in addition to the money, office space, access to Microsoft’s BizSpark program, and mentorship and training from Microsoft executives and investors. Hackers/developers will also gain access to the Windows Kinect SDK and XBox development kit—a bonus in its own right.

Is Microsoft up to something by letting developers gain access to its Kinect technology? Share your thoughts below.