The first place to start is to see what devices and "interfaces" or "configurations" are available for the USB device. The nicest way to do this is to use lsusb (Linux) or system_profiler (Mac) which is a "list usb" program available for Linux and mac. Sadly, it does not exist for windows, so find a mac or linux computer or friend, you'll only need it for a minute! [[edit: a reader has notified us that http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/usb_devices_view.html may do the trick!]]
For linux, run lsusb -vv (ultra verbose) for Mac, run system_profiler SPUSBDataType
There's a bunch more stuff like USB keys and such installed but this is a good starting point. Note that the Kinect is actually 4 USB devices - a hub, a camera, a microphone (audio) and a motor. The hub is just an easy way for the device to combine three separate chips into a single cable. We'll be investigating the Xbox NUI Motor since its the simplest. Note the Vendor ID = 0x045e and Product ID = 0x2b0. Every type USB device must have a unique VID and PID. The VID is the manufacturer. In this case, 0x045e is the VID for Microsoft. All Microsoft products will have that VID. Each product has a different PID, so all Kinect Motors use PID 0x02b0 this doesn't differ between two Kinects, they'll both have the same PID. The VID/PID are used as a way to have the proper driver find the product. Its a lot better than serial COM ports because COM ports change names but VID/PID are burned into the device firmware.
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