Kinect Gesture-Controlled RC Helicopter

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Gareth Branwyn is a freelance writer and the former Editorial Director of Maker Media. He is the author or editor of over a dozen books on technology, DIY, and geek culture. He is currently a contributor to Boing Boing, Wink Books, and Wink Fun. And he has a new best-of writing collection and “lazy man’s memoir,” called Borg Like Me.

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February 14th, 2012 5

Forbes blogger TJ McCue sent us a link to this awesome Kinect project with gesture-controls an S107 RC Helicopter. The builder, cdoughty29 on YouTube, writes:

The Kinect detects my hands, head, and hips. This information is translated into X, Y, Z coordinates, processed with some 7th grade Algebra, and then sent to the Arduino Uno over the serial port. The Arduino receives the signal and converts it to a 38 kHz Infrared signal that the S107 can understand.

Nifty. Thanks, TJ!

5 thoughts on “Kinect Gesture-Controlled RC Helicopter”

UncleWayne says:

February 15th, 2012 at 7:41 am

How did you figure out the IR control protocol? I’ve been building an arduino controler for the S107 but have been striking out on how to flash the IR LED.
Are there details on this build anywhere?

C. Doughty says:

February 15th, 2012 at 10:57 pm

Posted my Arduino to S107 code on codingfun.collinboy.net. Hope it helps.

MAKE | Kinect Gesture-Controlled RC Helicopter - A shopping search engine monster! - Gigunsa says:

February 19th, 2012 at 6:55 am

[…] Helicopter. The builder, cdoughty29 on YouTube, writes: The Kinect detects my hands, head, and hips.Read More… [Source: rc helicopter – Google Blog […]
Chris Farke says:

July 16th, 2012 at 1:00 pm

i am trying to recreate this project with a joystick but when i put the code for the joystick into the loop it refreshes too slow to control the helicopter.
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September 15th, 2015 at 9:37 pm

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