Dave Coustan's dashboard

It's interesting to see the projects that people come up with to take advantage of the powerful components inside gaming consoles. I've been staring at this project to turn my old Xbox into a beefy media center PC for a while now. I love the the idea of turning something I don't use anymore at all into something that beats the Apple TV in some ways.

There's nothing quite so cheap and functional yet in the realm of alternate uses for the Xbox 360, but I've poked around and found some imaginative projects and uses. Here's a small collection of things people have done with their 360's so far, and also a few ideas for Xbox features you can enable beyond just playing video games:

The Weird

Perhaps the weirdest, an egg fried on the heat sink of an Xbox 360:



In the "because he could" category, there's a 360 made into an alarm clock/tissue dispenser:


Photo via Jordan at Smashsomestuff.com

On the other end of the ambition spectrum, here's a project hardware hacker Ben Heckendorn did to turn his 360 into a classy 17-inch laptop:


Photo from Benheck.com

If you're into this sort of thing, Ben’s breakdown of the task makes for a fascinating -- if excruciatingly detailed -- read. It took him three months to complete. This souped-up 360 is water-cooled and fully functional, but it required all kinds of additional parts, including tubes of JB Weld, a 17-inch monitor, and a customized power brick.

Robotics, The Military, And The Po Po

The 360 controller is apparently the control sticks of choice for UK military spy planes that rain death from above. It seems like kind of a thin marketing gimmick, but I have to admit I'd like to see the military do something similar with a Guitar Hero controller, maybe involving a .50 cal cannon.

It has also been used in research applications, where it's been known to make an ideal control for advanced robotics projects that need lots of programmable sticks and buttons.

The 360 console has also made great trap bait. If you need to lure someone somewhere, you can dangle the promise of a brand-new Xbox 360, like the El Paso police department did to round up 115 wanted criminals.

Basic Ways To Make It Do More

These aren't necessarily full alternate uses, but they're some tips and suggestions for features you can enable beyond playing games and Xbox Live.

• Befriending The Zune - If you have a Zune, you can share music wirelessly from it to your 360 using Windows Media Connect. In fact, you can use a similar setup to share music and videos between a basic Windows machine and the 360.
  
• iPod/360 - If you have an iPod you can play non-rights-managed AAC files (i.e. stuff that's in AAC format but that you didn't buy from the iTunes store) from your iPod via a USB cable by downloading the Optional Media Update.
  
• Your Xbox Screening Room - You can now download and play video files encoded in the high-quality and popular DIVX and XVID formats.
  
• Make The D-pad Your Own - This one is more advanced and requires some hardware hacking. If you're into classic arcade games, you might want to modify the D-pad on your controller to improve the control in titles like Street Fighter and Virtua Fighter 5. This video shows how to make some mods using a Torx bit, a #1 and #0 phillips screwdriver, sandpaper, and/or a Dremel tool:
  
  
  

How about you? Have you seen any modification projects or alternate uses for the 360, discovered any interesting non-gaming features, or thought about doing anything to yours?

I've got my eye out for a project that shows how to make some kind of useful home security tool out of the Xbox Live Vision video camera add-on, but haven't found anything so far.