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Kinect For Windows Releasing On February 1

Posted by Soulskill on from the press-any-key-or-flail-spastically-to-continue dept.

clinko writes "Microsoft has announced that the new Kinect for Windows hardware and accompanying software will be available on February 1st, 2012 in 12 countries, at a suggested retail price of US $249 ($149 for edu). Microsoft has chosen a hardware-only business model for Kinect for Windows; they will not be charging for the SDK or the runtime. These will be available free to developers and end-users respectively."

4 of 155 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Why So expensive? by Eirenarch · · Score: 5, Informative

    The final version of the SDK will only work with Kinect for Windows hardware (meanwhile the Beta version license will be extended by 3 years and will continue to work with normal Kinect). Kinect for Windows will feature Near Mode as well.

    If you want officially supported SDK you need Kinect for Windows. That's the deal.

  2. Re:Have you heard of eviacam ? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    Well, that's not really what a Kinect is.

    Basically, you are comparing a web camera to a combination of: web camera, infrared based depth sensor with a CMOS camera, and a multi-array microphone. That's a whole lot more data than your average webcam provides. Especially the depth sensor really makes a significant difference; the distinguishing ability to determine points in 3D space has spawned a number of rather interesting possibilities. Heck, I even saw some guy on youtube use his Kinect to create 3D maps of his environment (along with textures). Try achieving that with eviacam.

    Now, we could also throw in all the software features from eviacam and pit them against Kinect's abilities to detect human beings, their joints, and track their every movement in 3D space.

    Mind you, I am not really a big fan of Kinect either (I don't even own one, never have), but you are basically not really making a fair comparison there.

  3. Re:Why So expensive? by Haxagon · · Score: 3, Informative

    Actually, it is different. This SKU is able to focus on near objects, unlike the old one that was designed for living rooms.

  4. Re:Why So expensive? by Bobtree · · Score: 4, Informative

    The PC version of Kinect is also a new version of the hardware, and it can be used accurately at 1/2 meter range. See: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/kinectforwindows/archive/2011/11/22/kinect-for-windows-building-the-future.aspx