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Microsoft Releases Kinect For Windows
nk497 writes "Microsoft has released Kinect for Windows, featuring a new "near mode" that lets the gesture control tech be used as close as 40cm. The Kinect for Windows hardware will retail at $249 — well above the price of the version for Xbox 360 consoles. Microsoft defended the price difference, saying sales of games and Xbox Live subscriptions help subsidize the console version. The new version will support Windows 7 and the Windows 8 developer preview, as well as Windows Embedded 7 devices."
i JU-st P000000steD tHIz using mi NEw keNe C t!
Bought fucking time.
Down at the corner?
Looks like Windows 8 touch interface is already outdated. Don't bother with the Kinect, mind control will be available soon.
The cheapest 2D LIDAR you're going to find is about $2000 (Hokuyo URG). It has pretty terrible range for a LIDAR, but it's still a good sensor. For 3D ranging you're going to spend at least a grand. The IFM O3D 2XX is the cheapest 3D Flash LIDAR I know of, and you're only getting 64x48 pixels of resolution, so essentially 1% of the pixels you're getting back from the Kinect for 10x the price. Given this, the Kinect is truely an amazing sensor.
"... Microsoft has already confirmed that the Kinect will ... not even run on Windows PCs that aren't also running the developer's kit and using the device otherwise may actually void the warranty."
http://news.consumerreports.org/electronics/2012/01/ces-2012-kinect-for-windows-doesnt-mean-youll-be-playing-games-on-your-pc.html
So if you are not a developer, save your money.
That's the main problem facing perception systems today. Humans have these two simple exteroceptive eyeballs and yet we can do incredible things. That's thanks to the amazing computational power of our brain, which we hardly understand. Thus, when we try to replicate our cognitive abilities we end up with algorithms that are completely intractable. I think this is in a large part due to computer scientists tendency to approach things with an engineering perspective instead of a biological perspective.
That, and a rifle to use on all the assholes who keep hanging Escher prints in the cameras' field of view and laughing hysterically at your algorithm's attempt to cope...
Also, from the article: "Although you will be able to download the SDK and use it with an existing Kinect for Xbox 360 for your own, personal development purposes "
Sounds good enough for hobbyists.
Then there's the other 3rd party companies who ALSO beat them to market, and with cheaper products. Microsoft's innovation is staggering.
Where are the sub $140 RGBD sensors that beat Kinect to market?
So wait, its more expensive? And there's going to be less games that use it. (see: none) Few if any will buy it, so nobody will waste time developing AAA games that use it, so nobody will buy it, so nobody will develop for it...
This isn't just about games anymore. This isn't even just about desktop PCs. We're talking about the ability to build customized solutions using Kinect sensors for commercial sale and educational applications.
So without mainstream games, who is this supposed to appeal to?
Companies looking to commercialize and educational institutions, as evidenced by the commercial license and educational pricing.
So without mainstream games, who is this supposed to appeal to? The very hackers who already got it working, because they wanted it? Whoops.
People who don't want to go through the hassle of hacking it. It's relatively easy if you have the know how. But in many ways it's a pain in the ass. Nothing is easier than plugging it into windows and clicking "install" and having access to everything. Plus, the Windows SDK has access to much more advanced features you don't get with the hacked versions, including access to Windows speech recognition engine (which is very good) as well as bangarang skeletal tracking with a few lines of code. With the hacked API, you get sensor streams and that's it. You have to leverage several different architectures in order to get the functionality the Windows SDK provides. Microsoft is offering a better learning curve and that is worth something.
But if that is the case, why not just add that software capability to Windows?!
Windows 7 can already handle voice commands. Search for "Speech recognition" in the start menu.
The rest of your post is just blind nerd-rage.
How about realizing that it's a money grab.
http://www.eetimes.com/electronics-news/4210649/Kinect-s-BOM-roughly--56--teardown-finds-
Don't forget to add in assembly costs, RND, plastics, tooling, packaging etc. Obviously these things go down over time, but I'd estimate there would be an extra $5-$10 in cost, at the least. So lats say $70 cost to MS. This $249 price gives MS roughly a 20%-35% profit on each one, depending on what their wholesale price is. Hardly looks like a money grab to me.
I don't think so. You would still need the Kinect since there is specialized hardware in it that allows all this to work. When they talk about embedded devices, I seriously doubt they are talking about phones, or any other consumer electronics. This sort of support is most likely targeted at point-of-sale embedded devices or kiosks or something else along those lines.
1 (short ton / firkin) = 89.1432354 slugs / keg
That, and the monumental monopoly that they got on the desktop thanks to their antitrust violations during the 90's.
They achieved a monopoly by being a monopoly?
1 (short ton / firkin) = 89.1432354 slugs / keg
Windows-Up-Right-Right-Right-Up-Enter. Hadouken...erm, reboot.
Might change slighly if you changed your power settings. Ctrl-Esc if you don't have a Windows key.
Ugh, I just confessed to knowing some MS stuff on /. /me braces for the incoming downvotes :)
Vacuum cleaners suck. Kings rule.
It'd almost be worth it if it could be programmed to interpret the one-finger salute as the three-finger salute.
the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
Well, stuff like that isn't "wow".
The problem is well, we treat computers as automation. We let computers do stuff we find hard or boring. The stuff we find easy, it turns out, is very hard to do on computers - natural language processing (face it - a lot of people went "so what?" when they saw Watson last year), vision processing (object recognition, character/word recognition), and hearing.
It's stuff we don't think about - and it's boring to most people who can't comprehend how we can do stuff like read printed text, but the computer can't do a reliable job of it.
It's probably one of the ironies in life. We have computers doing stuff easily that we find hard, and stuff we do easily computers find hard.
The up/down is for people who are different hights, or for games which are better played sitting/kneeling vs. standing. I don't know, maybe everybody who uses your kinect are all the same hight and always use it from the same position, but for the rest of us that motor is pretty important.
The spacing on the visual sensors doesn't require such a wide sensor bar, but the spacing on the microphones (for effective direction-sensing and noise-cancelation) does. People always focus on the optical portion of the sensor, and ignore the highly-focused microphones (possible because they're harder to see).
There's no place I could be, since I've found Serenity...
WHOOOSH!
My point was that Microsoft, once again, has spun things so far that they literally have it backwards and everyone buys it (excuse the pun) without a second thought. Peripherals don't support Operating Systems. Operating Systems support peripherals.
Guns don't kill people; Physics kills people! - John Lithgow as Dick Solomon on Third Rock From The Sun