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Microsoft Releases Kinect SDK For Windows

Posted by timothy on from the go-forth-and-wiggle dept.

soricon writes "Microsoft made good on its promise to release an official Kinect SDK for Windows, opening the door for multiple educational, research and enthusiasts groups to create new and innovative uses for the popular full body movement sensor. Currently in beta, the SDK requires Windows 7 and at a minimum, a dual core machine with a DirectX 9.0c capable graphic card and it is free to download."

7 of 137 comments (clear)

  1. It was only a matter of time by milbournosphere · · Score: 4, Insightful

    and this is a good decision. I've seen so many cool hacks for this hardware already, and that's just hackers playing around. Imagine what could be done with a legit SDK. Good job Microsoft, make more of these kinds of decisions.

  2. Skip the blogspam by Missing.Matter · · Score: 5, Informative

    Direct link: http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/um/redmond/projects/kinectsdk/

  3. "Article" is terrible by imidan · · Score: 4, Informative

    The blog post must have been written in a hurry by someone whose native language is not English.

    Here is the link to the actual Microsoft SDK:

    http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/um/redmond/projects/kinectsdk/

    1. Re:"Article" is terrible by Lunix+Nutcase · · Score: 5, Insightful

      The blog is run by the submitter. He was using the article as a way to drive hits to his site.

  4. Re:Why so much processing power??? by Microlith · · Score: 4, Informative

    The XBOX360 has a triple-core PowerPC processor. And dual core processors aren't exactly new, so I wouldn't call them "beefy." Also, IIRC a lot of processing has to be done host-side of the data coming from the Kinect, so a single core processor probably can't hack it.

  5. Re:SDK Licensing by kevinNCSU · · Score: 4, Insightful

    If you use the Kinect sensor with a platform other than Xbox 360, Xbox 360 S, or Windows (with the SDK Beta), you void the warranty you received when you purchased the Kinect sensor device.

    So, Even though you saw all those cool demos a few months ago using 'unlicensed' software, you're not allowed to run them, and they could be punished for software licence violations.

    If you consider them refusing to fix something you broke by running software platforms they haven't tested "punishing" you, I guess.

  6. Re:it's june, 2011 by RogueyWon · · Score: 4, Interesting

    On the gaming side, Microsoft have actually been less evil than their competitors for years now. Sony's acts of wanton consumer abuse are too many and too well known to be worth documenting. Nintendo is actually no better, maintaining some of the most anti-consumer policies around, such as rigidly enforced region locking and rabid crackdowns on homebrew. On the PC gaming side, Microsoft's last really "evil" act was insisting on Windows Vista to play the PC version of Halo 2 - which was years ago. Their first and second party PC games have never gone in for the kind of DRM shite we've seen from Ubisoft.

    These days, when Microsoft do something nasty on the gaming side, it's more likely to be down to incompetence (the RROD fiasco and Games for Windows Live) than malice. And to be honest, they are (slowly) getting better at avoiding that kind of thing.