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Some Windows 8 Laptops May Come With Built-In Kinect Sensors

An anonymous reader writes to point out reports that Asus is "working on a new laptop that will include Kinect gestures and will be compatible with Windows 8," and adds, "What does this mean for the consumer? Portable gestures in Windows 8!" Wired has an article based on the same report, which mentions also the prospect of devices incorporating alternative gesture-tracking software from SoftKinectic and others.

22 of 140 comments (clear)

  1. This could be amazing for the disabled by assemblerex · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I hope they make it have fine enough resolution it will work for challenged people.

    1. Re:This could be amazing for the disabled by Vecanti · · Score: 4, Funny

      I have Parkinson's you insensitive clod!

    2. Re:This could be amazing for the disabled by EdIII · · Score: 3, Interesting

      You know I was confused for a moment because I work with "challenged" people all the time, until I realized you might have meant physically challenged people.

      Seriously though, how is extra resolution on the kinect sensor going to help physically challenged people? I know some people that have challenges like that and I don't see how extra resolution is going to help with recognizing their hand gestures. I would think that training the software would be far more effective and required because each challenged person is going to have different "quirks" to their movements that need to be learned.

      Having that sensor alone as a standard on laptops going forward, regardless of resolutions, seems to open the doors for software to help all sorts of people interact with their computers more effectively and easily.

      Of course, ironically, one of the last articles had a poster with ALS being lambasted because he did not take the time to cut and paste from his blog instead of just linking to it. The Jerk! I know right? Would extra resolution help with somebody like Stephen Hawking to recognize facial twitches reliably?

    3. Re:This could be amazing for the disabled by Gumbercules!! · · Score: 4, Informative

      It is a different sensor, which was discussed on Slashdot recently. Microsoft announced it as CES 2012 - basically it's a special version for Desktop / PC use and it's useful range is from 30cm or there abouts. They've also released some APIs and so on, which will still work with the Xbox 360 1.8m version, but only while in beta. It's actually pretty cool and I am looking forward to it. I think it's the best way to get touchscreen like interface options, without the bad idea that having a touch screen laptop or desktop would be. It's one of the few IT announcements I am actually excited about, of late. (And please, because I know it is the fad on /. these days to accuse anyone who is positive on any MS product of being a paid shill, feel free to check my years long commenting history, much of which is -ve of MS. I am not a paid shill for MS. It just happens that I really like what I've seen of this product - albeit none of which has been in person; I've only seen product demos on youtube, etc, so perhaps the real thing actually sucks).

      I remember seeing the Samsung touch screen see through Window on youtube, from CES and think Kinect, coupled with Windows like that, would make for a pretty awesome house! :-)

  2. Re:And a locked down bootloader? by game+kid · · Score: 4, Funny

    It's ok, someone will make a Metro app that unlocks the loader with a middle-finger gesture. (The devs just need a new name because "Angry Flipped Birds" won them a C&D...)

    --
    You can hold down the "B" button for continuous firing.
  3. And the purpose is..? by Digicrat · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Kinect in the living room makes sense - voice/gesture commands in place of a remote control is surprisingly useful (when it works). On a laptop though -- what does the Kinect give that a touch screen can't do better? I mean outside of adult entertainment...

    On the other hand, if it can support gestures with your eyes, then it might be useful. For example, gaze at a specific window/monitor and having it automatically come into focus could be quite a convenience ... but I don't think we'll see that for a while.

    1. Re:And the purpose is..? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

      I suddenly have a vision of a bunch of tech workers, professionals, what have you out in public, coffee shops, etc, flailing around like a bunch of epileptics jacked up on coke.

      The purpose may, in fact, be to troll the public at large.

  4. I have a suggestion! by goldaryn · · Score: 4, Funny

    BSOD - you can simply bang your head on the table to restart your computer!

    1. Re:I have a suggestion! by PPH · · Score: 5, Funny

      Bang Skull On Desk?

      --
      Have gnu, will travel.
  5. 20 years ago by circletimessquare · · Score: 5, Funny

    someone talking to themselves walking down the street would have been considered insane or on drugs

    now, they just have a bluetooth headset on and are perfectly normal

    today, someone sitting alone in the park making random jerky gestures would be someone on drugs, or insane

    in 5 years, that's just someone using their kinect-enabled laptop

    it's all part of technology's goal of virtualizing the experience of tourette syndrome and schizophrenia for us all

    --
    intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
  6. So let me get this straight... by jjoelc · · Score: 4, Funny

    Windows8... With a touch inspired graphical interface... And someone thinks the solution is to include a touch less hardware interface...

    I'll skip all the jokes about keeping away from Wwindows... Or a hands-off approach to management, etc. (or not...)

  7. Re:Exciting by 0123456 · · Score: 5, Funny

    What really has me excited about Windows 8 is Kinect. I think we're going to see a big transformation in the landscape of user interface in the next several years pushing us towards device-less interfaces.

    Yeah, we're all going to create Excel spreadsheets by randomly waving our hands in front of the screen.

  8. Re:Exciting by icebike · · Score: 5, Insightful

    What really has me excited about Windows 8 is Kinect. I think we're going to see a big transformation in the landscape of user interface in the next several years pushing us towards device-less interfaces.

      Granted, this stuff isn't a replacement, it's a supplement. So don't think I'm preaching the death of touch or mouse and keyboard. The more options of well developed and useful interfaces we have the better.

    I think device-less interface make sense for hand held computers, and less and less sense as you scale up the size of the computer.
    Contrary to the scenes in CSI-Miami, flinging things around a huge table sensor is not particularly useful or efficient. Nor is reaching across your keyboard to move or select some object by dragging it across your 24 inch screen.

    Even on a level of effort basis, waiving hands and fingers around in the air is pretty much a non-starter. (Not to be too George Jetson here...).
    Then there is the on/off problem. Were you gesticulating while talking to your work-mate, or editing paragraphs on the page? Mice do nothing much unless you click.

    The mouse still rules, and even the Wacom Bamboo line of touch/pen input devices are clumsy approximations.
    Mice cost anywhere from 2 to 40 dollars, are amazingly precise, and by now, fully intuitive across all platforms.

    If QWERTY can last from 1878 to the present, something far more elegant like the mouse is going to have a very long life.

    Kinect will probably remain for games, and maybe music (performance, not listening), and the air guitar is going to become a REAL instrument.

    --
    Sig Battery depleted. Reverting to safe mode.
  9. Re:Exciting by EdIII · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I'm excited too.

    Something that might let me surf websites, go from links to links, control video playback, and have two hands free?

    It's A Good Thing.

  10. Re:Exciting by Globe199 · · Score: 3, Funny

    Stop trying to drag us into the past. The future is now. You just think of the numbers and they'll appear in the spreadsheet.

    I don't know. Some bullshit I read on a tech blog.

  11. Re:Exciting by n1hilist · · Score: 3, Funny

    That pretty much sums up my experience with Excel :)

  12. I've been making gestures for years! by jbeaupre · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I've been making gestures MS products for years. Call it feedback. Hell, I feel like making a gesture right now. The big change? Now we can be ignored 4 ways (keyboard, mouse, sound, gesture).

    --
    The world is made by those who show up for the job.
  13. And people thought Siri was silly... by SuperKendall · · Score: 5, Funny

    Some people were complaining about Siri, saying that for some reason they didn't want to be seen out in public, talking on... a phone.

    Well I'd take that over being out in public with my mobile device looking like I was being attacked by an invisible cloud of bees.

    --
    "There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
  14. lessons not learnt by Tom · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Way to kill an excellent concept, MicroIdiots!

    Voice control largely failed because nobody wanted to be caught dead talking to his computer and it just doesn't work at all in office environments.

    Putting gesture control into notebooks must have been the winner of the "stupid idea of the year" contest, and for some reason it got mixed up with the actual product plan.

    Seriously, on a train, in the airport lounge, on the airplane - that's when you really wish your notebook had gesture controls, right? And when you pitch your product to your business partners and give a crucial presentation, that's exactly the moment where you want to rely on more-or-less reliable gesture controls instead of a mouse or keyboard click or remote control.

    Totally. The only place dumber than notebooks would've been the Zune.

    --
    Assorted stuff I do sometimes: Lemuria.org
  15. Re:Exciting by EdIII · · Score: 5, Insightful

    What do you need the other hand for? Grabbing your partner's cock?

    A strange inference from my post. Let me try do the same with your post.

    You cannot understand what a 2nd hand could be used for, and your seemingly first thought is that it must be used for another man's cock.

    There are several possibilities that are floating around in my head right now and let me take a whack at drawing inferences from your post as well.....

    1) You are dealing with latent homosexual urges as evidenced by your apparent obsession with grabbing another man's cock.
    2) You don't often have partners, because if you did, you would realize that there are 4 hands present and several orifices with the additional person. Cirque Du Soleil abilities aside, your own orifices are irrelevant. Only a single hand is required from either party to work the remote/mouse.
    3) You are prepubescent and/or possessing of a small penis. Therefore it would never occur to you that an additional hand might be useful or desired.
    4) You have at least one unusually large hand, and again, it would never occur to you that an additional hand would be needed.

    Living in the post Atomic Age might cause one to conclude #4 to be correct, but statistically speaking, such mutations are very rare. #2 is certainly possible because this is Slashdot with the ever present stereotype that we are all in our mother's basements awaiting the delivery of Hot Pockets and Mountain Dew. #2 is also possible because the lack of logic and creativity with some people here never ceases to surprise me. #1 could be due to simple anonymous asshole syndrome, which is best explained by the Penny Arcade's Greater Internet Fuckwad Theory.

    Hmmmmm.....

    I will have to go with #3. You must have a tiny little penis. Do not lament your tiny penis my anonymous friend, because it is not the size that matters but how well you can convince somebody other than yourself to touch it.

    These parting words I offer you as comfort.

  16. Re:Can we get the systems with windows 7? by rhook · · Score: 3, Funny

    Secure boot is only required for the ARM version of Windows 8. MS has explicitly said that you'll be able to install any OS you want on x86 based Windows 8 machines. Do some research before you make accusations and you won't make yourself look like a fool.

    http://www.extremetech.com/computing/114173-windows-8-secure-boot-calm-down-microsoft-is-simply-copying-apple

  17. Re:Exciting by a_hanso · · Score: 3, Funny

    I'd rather be able to wave my hand over a Google results page and say, "These are not the results I'm looking for".