Microsoft CEO Says Kinect To Support PCs Eventually

Ken writes "Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer has said that the company will support Kinect for PCs sometime in the future. The motion controller is currently only officially supported for the Xbox 360, although it has been hacked and tweaked to work on pretty much any platform that can be plugged into via a USB port. 'We're trying to move beyond gaming to include the world of socialization, movies, TV, music, and we're trying to make the whole experience accessible to everybody in the family not just the traditional gamer.' When Ballmer was asked, 'Will you plug-in the Kinect to the PC, will you go for that in the near future?' he replied, 'We'll support that in a formal way in the right time and when we've got an announcement to make we'll make it.' Note that this is completely separate from the Kinect-like controller from PrimeSense and Asus." Other readers have tipped related articles about Kinect being used to enable 3D teleconferencing and help drive a small helicopter drone.

Comments

Interesting to compare with WiiMote for PC

[fleeped]

As Kinect seems to be the new hot toy after WiiMote, it will be interesting to see how it ventures in terms of developed applications and research. I think Nintendo did a mistake by ignoring PC support for their gadget.

Re:Interesting to compare with WiiMote for PC

[antifoidulus]

Not really, Nintendo doesn't have any vested interest in the PC market(games and otherwise) like Microsoft does. The amount of money Nintendo makes off the wiimote isn't that large and the costs of PC support(drivers, support staff etc.) and the potential to cannibalize their own market outweigh what little money there is in selling a couple extra wiimotes.

Re:Interesting to compare with WiiMote for PC

[Moryath]

The problem for the Wiimote is that it's just plain underpowered. Test it out with any small motions and you'll understand what I mean; Wii Sports Golf putting, for instance, is an exercise in frustration trying to get it to register for a simple tap-in putt without having it fling your ball halfway across the green instead. The same problem is also responsible for the troubles the wiimote has in recognizing when people have moved the controller for a backhand rather than forehand stroke in Wii Sports Tennis.

The motion sensors are simply not sensitive enough to register correctly, so they put an abnormally large "dead zone" calibration in as a cheap hack. Even the add-on pack with the extra sensors doesn't improve it to that great of an extent, and requires constant calibration (the whole "set your wiimote down on a flat surface... quick... no really do it now, we know you're handcuffed to it but you better have it flat NOW or fuck it you can play the next round with a miscalibrated controller" deal).

When Chris Hecker said the Wii is nothing more than two gamecubes stuck together with duct tape, he wasn't that far off. Of course, the larger problem for the Wii going forward is the fact that game designers with little experience in interface design seem to feel obliged to put in some nasty-stupid "ooh it has motion sensing" control element even when unjustified. Classic case: Spider-Man Shattered Dimensions. On the 360 and PS3 you have jump, jab, punch, and grab buttons. On the Wii you have jump, jab, grab, and... for a punch I have to shake the damn remote? Really? It's not just annoying, it's actually LESS playable, because you never know quite when "enough" shaking will be enough to activate the function you're looking for.

That being said, IF Microsoft can improve the sensitivity of the Kinect bar enough to reliably discern fingers, it might actually be interesting to see what a motion-to-mouse interface would be like with it. Wave, poke to click, pinch to select, etc... it could be done.

Hacked != Independent Drivers Available.

[Saint Gerbil]

The people who "hacked" it didn't hack it they wrote drivers for it. Kudos to them its more than I could do but lets call it what it is, eh ?
Its not like they broke Xbox security and pulled code out of it, what they did was much better.

Re:Hacked != Independent Drivers Available.

[Rogerborg]

Hacked != Cracked.

Yes, there's a difference. It may only matter to the people who do it, rather than those who just talk about it, but they're the ones who matter.

Re:Hacked != Independent Drivers Available.

[Ivan Stepaniuk]

Currently, "hacker" is used in two main ways, one positive and one pejorative. It can be used in the computing community to describe a particularly brilliant programmer or technical expert (for example: Linus Torvalds). This is said by some to be the "correct" usage of the word (see the Jargon File definition below). However, in popular usage and in the media, it generally describes computer intruders or criminals. "Hacker" can be seen as a shibboleth, identifying those who use it in its positive sense as members of the computing community. You are assuming that only the second definition applies, however Slashdot is one of the places in which the first definition generally applies, not the second. Hacked = Independent drivers made available.

Kinect, without MS

[Bitzer2]

It's coming to PC with or without Microsoft. Primesense, the company who actually own the technology have teamed up with Asus. http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20110103005276/en/PrimeSense-Teams-ASUS-Bring-Intuitive-PC-Entertainment

Distance

[Feinu]

The recommended distance from the sensor is 6-8 feet. The average person sits within 3 feet of their screen. They definitely need to do some work to make it finger aware, because I can't imagine that people will want to back away that far from the computer just to use full body gestures.

Re:Distance

[drinkypoo]

I have a PC hooked up to my living room HDTV, you insensitive clod! I've found it the only reasonable way to watch netflix on a marginal connection.

Re:Someone needs to tell him about the...

[ThirdPrize]

Yeah, but will it run Linux?

Sweet

[ThatsNotPudding]

Hands-free viruses!

Re:Official PC support will get software devs onbo

[plover]

The thing is they'd have to build a support infrastructure to support the PC world. Instructions for help staff, new menus in their IVRs, help files, etc. Application support is only a fraction of the work.

While all that may seem trivial on the surface, it's a ton of project management and detail work that takes a long time to pull together. They've done this before, so they know what it will take.

     

Re:Small living rooms

[RogueyWon]

I've got a Kinect and have tried it in 5 different homes, with varying degrees of success. Actually, that's a little unfair; it's worked to an acceptable level in 4 of the 5, and been just about on the unacceptable side of the line in the 5th (though you could have used it if you were really determined).

The big issue seems to be room shape rather than room size. I have a small living room, but the TV looks down it length-ways, so it works fine for me. Unless you want to do 2-player (which I don't normally, at home), you don't actually need all that much room to move side to side. The really key thing is to be able to get those 6-8 feet from the TV; if you can do that and have the room to take at least one large step to the side in either direction, it's fine.

What you do need to get right is the lighting. The quality of the tracking seems to be highly dependant on the level of lighting in the room. I've found I get the best results by having an artificial light source behind me while I play; gives the thing a nice clear silhouette to watch. It also helps to have it as close to eye-level (or at least chest level) as possible. The advice to stick it below your TV is not great. I got much better results by putting it on a chest-height window-ledge next to the TV.

There is, however, still a major problem with using Kinect in many homes, which is related to the current games range rather than the hardware itself. A lot of the current games expect the player to jump - a lot. If you live in a flat or apartment, your downstairs neighbours will NOT appreciate you jumping up and down a lot. It would be really good if games could start recognising the "spring-motion" that Wii Fit recognises as a jump as an alternative. As I say, this is entirely a software issue; the hardware should be perfectly capable of allowing it.

Of course, aside from exercise software, I've yet to actually see anything come out of the Kinect - or any other motion control device - that actually helps lead to better games than a mouse and keyboard or 2-stick controller. That said, the exercise software is useful and I'll probably stick a Wii Fit vs Your Shape comparison in my journal at some point over the next few days, now I've had a few weeks to get used to Your Shape (tl;dr version - they're both good, both have strengths and weaknesses in different areas).