Paul Terry Walhus of Spring.net records an Ascentium demo of using the Microsoft Xbox Kinect to control some boxing robots at a SXSW 2011 trade show booth. Ascentium’s Kinectobots adapt Kinect technology to allow contenders to use their bodies as the controllers and drive the action of the classic Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em toy robots. The robots are assembled by Ascentium developers and mounted on a mobile platform with wheels so that players can duke it out in real life with more mobility. Participants can face off against friends, view others engaged in battle and score some Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em stickers and mini thumb robots. Everyone can also follow the fight results at @Kinectobots on Twitter. “Since the Kinect hit the streets, people have put together some pretty amazing hacks.” said Steve Farrell, Executive Creative Director at Ascentium. “There are “Minority Report” interfaces, graphic manipulation tools and motion capture animation programs. But nobody’s built fighting robots, which to us seemed like a no-brainer. Our Kinectobots are an unholy marriage of childhood nostalgia and today’s latest technology: a Frankenstein combining the classic Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em Robots and two Arduino-powered tank chassis. It’s the kind of thing our teams like doing for fun; taking technology and creative possibility and making abrand new experience. They just happen to be doing it at work.”
