Monday, October 31, 2011
Glen
On November 4th Kinect will have its first birthday and Microsoft are kicking off the week by celebrating the "Kinect Effect", the burst of innovative and often unexpected applications for the device spanning an array of industries and far exceeding its initial unveiling as a gaming platform.
Microsoft clearly sees hands-free interaction with computers as an important part of our future, and their plans with Kinect are just getting started. As well as the huge support from TV and entertainment content providers coming later this holiday season, Microsoft are set to launch the Kinect For Windows commercial program early next year.
Kinect has inspired creativity inside the company says Kevin Schofield, general manager of Microsoft Research, which played a key role in developing Kinect. In Microsoft Research alone, several people are working on refining Kinect’s existing capabilities and enabling it to do more. For example, researchers are now looking to build a library of common Kinect gestures that Microsoft can share with developers to help their projects move more quickly.The commercial program will give businesses the tools to develop applications that not only could improve their own operations, but potentially revolutionize entire industries. To date, more than 200 businesses worldwide -- including Toyota, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt and Razorfish -- have joined a Kinect for Windows pilot program to begin exploring the possibilities of Kinect. While no one knows what the future holds, if the past year is any indication, it’s going to be inspiring.
“These things are just on a steady treadmill, they just keep getting better and better,” he says. “The underlying technology is just going to get better, and having the product out on the market accelerates the whole process.”
Read the full press release on Major Nelsons blog, and check out xbox.com/kinecteffect for a look at the variety of ways Kinect is being used today, and how it will be used in the near future.
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