If you feel an itch to make your own tools and applications that use the Kinect, there’s now “Kinect Fun Labs”, where you can try out various features others have made from the comfort of your living room. Even better, the epic Unreal Engine is being used to make some of the applications.

What is Kinect Fun Labs? Kinect Fun Labs brings exciting innovation to Kinect for Xbox 360 owners and offers more extraordinary ways to have fun. Create magical moments with never-before-seen Kinect technology, including player capture, object scanning and finger tracking. Choose from a variety of Gadgets in Kinect Fun Labs — turn yourself into a bobblehead, bring your favorite stuffed animal to life or create art with your fingertips. With new Gadgets available all the time, try out the latest experiences, see and vote on creations from your friends, and rate your favorite Gadgets.

Show Off and Share. Post your favorite photo and video moments through KinectShare.com to any number of social networking sites, such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.

Player Capture
Stand in front of the Kinect sensor to create real-you avatars to play with and share. From the clothes you’re wearing to your hairstyle, Kinect will capture your likeness in ways you’ve never seen before.

• Kinect Me. Build an avatar that looks just like you! Just stand in front of the Kinect sensor and your face, hair, clothes and voice will make up your lifelike avatar. Pose for a photo shoot or put together a personalized flip book.
• Bobble Head. Using your imagination, the fun with Bobble Head is endless! With the player capture technology, you can transform yourself into a babbling bobblehead you can share with friends, throw around or place on a virtual car dashboard and make wobble any way you want.

Object Scanning
Scan your favorite objects to create virtual toys. Hold an item in front of the sensor and let Kinect instantly create a full, interactive 3-D model from it.

• Build a Buddy. Bring your stuff to life! Scan any object, choose different characteristics, mix in your own voice and watch your buddy spring into action. Interact with your buddy and create goofy videos.
• Kinect Googly Eyes. Make your own puppet show! Place googly eyes on any item, and use your movement and voice to give it a unique personality. Animate your new friend and tell a story.

Finger Tracking and Background Removal
This July, increased tracking precision will enable greater expression and creativity. Let your fingers take control, and manipulate the screen with any one — or all — of your digits. Enhanced background removal functionality facilitates layering images of people seamlessly onto new backgrounds to let you further unleash your creativity.

• Sparkler Art. Paint with light! Use your body as a stencil and your fingers to paint or write with sparklers. Your room becomes your canvas. Share your masterpiece with friends and family.

Avatar Kinect
Also coming this July, Avatar Kinect allows you to hang out with up to seven friends in creative, themed environments — from talk-show and late-night comedy sets to tailgate parties and performance stages — and capture animated videos you can share online. With the power of Kinect, control your avatar’s movements and facial expressions in ways never before possible: When you smile, frown, nod or speak, your avatar will do the same. Whether it’s friends getting together to chat, social networkers looking for new ways to engage their followers or a tool to re-enact your favorite movie lines, Avatar Kinect opens up a whole new world of creativity and social interactivity.

 

Epic Games, Inc. announces that multiple Kinect Fun Labs Gadgets coming to Kinect for Xbox 360 are being developed with the award-winning Unreal Engine 3. Under its licensing agreement with Epic, Microsoft is harnessing the latest Unreal Engine technology to bring outstanding game visuals to innovative controller-free experiences in Kinect Fun Labs.

Revealed during today’s Microsoft E3 2011 media briefing, the first wave of innovative Gadgets in Kinect Fun Labs include Kinect^TM Me, Bobble Head, Build A Buddy and Kinect^TM Googly Eyes – all of which are powered by Unreal Engine 3.

“With Kinect Fun Labs we are introducing the newest innovative experiences with Kinect for Xbox 360, and Unreal Engine 3 is a great engine with which to make games for Kinect and Xbox 360,” said Shannon Loftis, studio head for Good Science Studio, Microsoft Studios. “We carefully select the industry’s best game development tools to create these pioneering experiences and we’ve only just begun to show its potential.”

“Unreal Engine 3 has been used for Kinect since day one,” said Mark Rein, vice president of Epic Games. “Unreal Engine 3 is powering the latest Kinect experiences which enable you to build an avatar in your likeness, play with bobbleheads, animate real life objects onscreen and be creative in the game environment in ways that we couldn’t have imagined a few years ago.”

About Kinect Fun Labs
Kinect Fun Labs brings exciting innovation to Kinect for Xbox 360 owners and offers more extraordinary ways to have fun. Create magical moments with never-before-seen Kinect technology, including player capture, object scanning and finger tracking. Choose from a variety of Gadgets in Kinect Fun Labs – turn yourself into a bobblehead, bring your favorite stuffed animal to life or create art with your fingertips. With new Gadgets available all the time, try out the latest experiences, see and vote on creations from your friends, and rate your favorite Gadgets.

About Unreal Engine 3
The award-winning Unreal Engine is known for its cutting-edge graphics, best-of-breed suite of integrated tools and scalability across platforms. Epic Games’ research and development continually evolve Unreal Engine 3’s highly mature toolset and content pipeline. Unreal Engine 3 is available across multiple platforms including iOS, Xbox 360® and PlayStation®3, PC, Mac and Android. Unreal Engine 3 is designed to accelerate developers’ productivity for computer and video games, mobile games and applications, training simulations, 3D visualizations, digital films and animated television shows. Unreal Engine 3 is the current holder and five-time winner of Game Developer magazine’s Best Engine award in the US as well as the current holder and three-time winner of Develop magazine’s Best Engine award in the UK. Developers can start using Unreal Engine 3 with the Unreal Development Kit (UDK), the free edition of the engine’s award-winning toolset available at www.udk.com. Additional information on Unreal Engine 3 can be obtained atwww.unrealengine.com.