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Kinect For PCs Early Next Year, Microsoft Eyeing Business Apps
An anonymous reader writes "Microsoft has announced that its Kinect motion-control system will be available for PCs in early 2012, and that they're planning to take it into the business world as well. 'Microsoft plans to launch a commercial program for the peripheral early next year, giving businesses the tools to develop customized applications for their companies and industries. The pilot program already includes such familiar names as Toyota, book publisher Houghton Mifflin Harcourt and design firm Razorfish. All totaled, over 200 "marquis brand" companies in 25 countries have signed up for the program... And while the majority of those companies have opted to keep their names hidden for now for competitive reasons, Microsoft is working with them to get the applications up and running, so they can debut as soon as possible. Just don't expect the Redmond-based company to do any first party apps for this program.'"
Sometimes I really do feel like I'm living in the future :)
Now just someone hurry up with the personal jetpack and flying car...
Ugh. Double-ugh. More useless desktop eye-candy you can't turn off. More network load for push apps we didn't want 10 years ago. More blink-on-mouseover crap in business apps. And now you have to wave your arms like Neo in the Matrix in order to alt-tab between apps... Win 8's Metro IF+ Kinect for PC....
The MSFT Clown School of Interface Design (tm) is coming like a tidal wave.
(Finally a test coming for my tin foil hat)
If Kinect gets wide spread adoption in the work place I see it being used as a beat stick to track how much time you spend at your desk and what posture you maintain in your chair.
The sad thing is that the drones will comply.
I like how an entire market for advanced motion control has sprung up around what was originally a homebrew reverse engineering effort. That said, the tech inside the kinect is amazing and the ability to get it all in to a sub100 dollar mass market device is impressive.
So when will we see a kernel driver merged so we can start using it?
"Nine times out of ten, starting a fire is not the best way to solve the problem." - my wife
The current one is not wide enough for desktop use. I don't want to have the Kinect 10 feet away from me. It's got to be 3 feet from me.
Would a software vendor be exposed to legal trouble if it developed and SOLD software capable of using the Microsoft Kinect SDK to acquire data from a Kinect device? Assume the product did not ship with the Microsoft Kinect SDK, and that the user had to download and install that SDK on their own. Also, assume the commercial software product only dynamically loaded the DLL necessary for calling Kinect-related functions, and could operate (without the Kinect feature) in the absence of that DLL.
If there were a chance of legal trouble, what type of law would be its basis? DMCA "reverse engineering" prohibition? Copyright infringement? Patent infringement? Encouraging the user to violate their EULA?
Would the situation change if an open-source library for accessing the Kinect (via USB protocol) were used instead of the Microsoft Kinect SDK? Or is it understood that any open-source library is necessarily a DMCA "reverse engineering" violation?
It's OK if you're not a lawyer. I'm interested in the opinions of non-lawyers, too, because it reflects the opinions of people affected by such laws.
And how many businesses are going to allow hyperactvie internet connected webcams on every desktop?
Microsoft is probably mainly looking to integrate Kinect functions into power point, browsers, multimedia players, and collaboration software for use in presentations and meetings. Frankly, I think it will be a fantastic tool for those functions as well. I don't think they're looking for integration for desktop use. A mouse and keyboard will always work faster. Besides, in a couple years any monitor you buy will be touch screen enabled, so alternative input methods will be a moot point.
we have kinect porn on the pc?
who prays for Satan? Who in 18 centuries has had the humanity to pray for the 1 sinner that needed it most? ~Mark Twain
I read this as "New Windows Only Driver alternative to the cross platform OpenCV and Freenect pair" -- Psh. Not news. Kinect is used more on my "PCs" (machines running XP & G'Linux) than it ever has been on my XBox 360.
I use it to create mo-cap for my cross-platform game, I use the Kinect for video conferencing, I already use my Kinect for quick gesture based, Application agnostic GUI navigation -- not a replacement for mouse and keyboard, an enhancement, a quick wave to switch workspaces, get up and leave to lock screen...
I guess you want me to give all that CrossPlatform goodness up and use a MS's only solution?
Damn Straight "Oh, I must be new here."
Microsoft could have something.
Imagine you made a windows manager and knew "passive" information about the user. Are they looking at their desk or across the room? Are they at the keyboard or over on the couch? Might you want to write a neat algorithm that changed how the user interacted with it? Minute hand gestures that only activated when the user was looking directly at the display, perhaps? As funny as the Google mail stuff was, there would be a few I would accept even not looking at the display. Like a "stop" hand pointed at the display bringing the computer in and out of sleep. Hell, it knows where you are, so it can even change the font size to fit regular spreadsheet work to being on the other side of the room.
I'm no technologist (or maybe I am) but what the hell happened to slashdot where we can't imagine cool things any more?
I guess this means we can officially say goodbye to Microsoft Surface. Kinect is comparatively inexpensive and can now be used on a customizable platform.
Freedom is drinking a beer in the park when you're supposed to be at work.
As far as I'm concerned it's bombed on the xbox. I think this just proves it as they're looking to make money off of kinect through other systems and seeing how it would appear a big chunk of kinect purchasers are doing things with it on a PC they probably just figured they might as well get in on that.
I work for one of the companies which prefer to be unnamed. I coded an app that uses Kinect for some ui control, and while it perhaps looks cool for a geek, a person using this to actually control something, waving hands decisively, looks rather entertaining. Our CIO liked it though.
The problem is the standard SDK is not precise enough at gesture recognition, and there is simply too much noise for subtle gestures to be supportable. Also, while you can code it yourself, it does not see your fingers which means you really have to wave your entire hands. Plus, it does not work at all if you are below, say, 1.5m from the device. The actual uses for this, except controlling interactive billboards, are limited.
Great. Now my windows box will know I'm actually pissed at it when I flip it off and throw up my arms in disgust.
Hopefully it works through BSOD's.
I can do my powerpoint presentations in the form of interpretive dance!
Wow. Complaints? Did any of you guys see Minority Report? I wasn't keen on the film itself, but the computer interface was cool.
This is typical MS how I missed the boat because they didn't know It owned one mentality
the first time I saw a Kinect I thought wow that would work in power point for presentations and a lot of other things on a PC if it were available, nice to see MS has once again missed the point of utility on a PC until everyone else showed them.