VIDEO: Skyrim PC Hacked to Work With Microsoft Kinect
A YouTube member reveals a hack that allows him to use Kinect to control his character in Bethesda's just-released Skyrim.
It was bound to happen eventually: someone has managed to get Microsoft's Kinect motion-sensing device to work within the PC version of Bethesda's The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. The hack was developed by YouTube user KinectFAAST and uses both motion detection and voice commands to get the job done.
"The gestures are simple and intuitive, yet allow for gameplay depth never before seen with the Kinect," KinectFAAST writes. "Simply swing your right arm forward, up, left, or right, and your character will hack with his sword. Or, if you have a spell in your right arm, simply raise your hand or push it forward to cast. Use your left arm to control your character’s view; if you have something equipped like a spell or shield, you left arm will control that as well."
KinectFAAST explains that the gesture control is handled by the Kinect using a middleware program called FAAST that operates using the OpenNI framework and converts user movements into keystrokes. The OpenNI framework doesn't actually support voice control, so he used a program called VAC (Voice Activated Commands) which allows the user to pair spoken words with keystrokes.
"Trying to avoid any type of controller, wires, or anything that might impede movement, I have used a RazorFish Bluetooth headset to send voice commands to VAC," he said. "This device was relatively inexpensive, and probably accounts for some of the gameplay moments where a command is unrecognized."
A video demonstration can be seen below, but it doesn't showcase a number of voice-related features like using "Left hand" and "Right hand" commands, saying "Journal," saying "Hello" and more.

I've tried Kinect and I can't see anything fun with it except for the occasional family/drunken party Guitar Hero-kind-of game session. For games like Skyrim and alikes this would never work in the long run.
I am all for motion control... just let me have the option to sit down, and not have to talk.
"Where do you work out?" ...
"In Skyrim, it's only for the Dragon Born though"
The problem is that the game only utilizes 2GB of RAM by default. Download a large address aware mod, like 4GB Skyrim.
http://www.skyrimnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=1013
I don't think the bugs/crashes have anything to do with this, do they?
I've been having issues myself with random crashes to the desktop. Also, I get this weird flickering effect ... every time it flickers to a white screen for only a split second I hear the water sound effect like I'm in the water or something. Pretty strange. I hope they fix all the bugs soon.
It has a LOT to do with crash to desktop issues, and loss of texture problems, like the person I quoted described... so yes, I think my proposed fix would work for him.
As for your issue... well, we should be discussing this sort of thing in the forums. Most of the Skyrim issues are fixable. I had many problems myself, but got the vast majority of it sorted out the night I bought the game, by just doing some searching around for about a half hour.
Updating video drivers, applying the 4GB mod I linked, and changing your sound audio quality to 41K, resolves the vast majority of Skyrim technical issues. And then it's just little things, like NPCs clipping through walls and crap, which isn't as game breaking. The comments section isn't the best place for talking about specific fixes though.
but the video shows why kinect has better applications outside of game than inside.
i would love to see move, that could be a bit interesting, but a full mod of combat would be unnecessary, but in my eyes could be the best mod ever if done right. need to unlock character movement, and have free motion of the sword and bow, swing as many times as you can, get rid of stamania as its tied to if you can do a full swing. weapon parrys, and probably a slow time down option for fighting bow users, like 1 second long, and you move your sword to parry it.
but than again i have high hopes for motion games, and it will never happen, because motion games are content with family orientated game play,
That's a hillarious statement and I'm there too.... we would need kinect to measure our feet in motion... how fast or slow paced we run on a spot... then we'll really loose weight quick... Imagine if you dedicated as much time to working out as playing the game... as time passes as you level your character, you'll probably feel like you've levelled too...