Microsoft talks "mind-blowing" Kinect for Windows

by Steven Williamson on 10 January 2012, 15:40

Tags: Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT)

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During its keynote address at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) this week, Microsoft has confirmed that its Kinect controller will be available from February 1st for Windows PC.

"We're already working with over 200 companies on unique Kinect for Windows applications, including American Express, Mattel, Telefonica, Toyota and the United Health Group," revealed Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer, confirming that the peripheral will be used for much more than just gaming.

Though Ballmer took the opportunity to rave about the success of Kinect on Xbox 360 so far, which has sold 18 million units in little over a year, he didn’t go into much further detail about the long-term plans for Kinect on Windows, though he did say that “the breadth of what they're doing is mind-blowing" as the company seeks to take further advantage of the peripheral’s voice and gesture recognition capabilities.



Kinect’s hardware is certainly impressive, but so far game developers haven’t fully taken advantage of it, delivering a range of kid-friendly games that do little to harness its potential. A recent Xbox dashboard update in December added further functionality, allowing users to navigate the interface with voice control and paved the way for interaction between the console and Windows Phones with its Metro-inspired interface.

Though Microsoft doesn’t have a booth at this year’s CES, it also took full advantage of its keynote speech to detail a new storage system for Windows 8 which will allow users to virtualise their storage.

More from CES 2012



HEXUS Forums :: 12 Comments

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Finally….we are starting to reach the point where I might actually buy one of these novelty items :)
shaithis
Finally….we are starting to reach the point where I might actually buy one of these novelty items :)
I'd hold off until they manage to downsize the amount of space that you need to have to be able to use one of these. I'd love it if they manage to rig it so you can use it for gesture/voice control when sitting at a desk, (yes, I know there's keyboards/mice for that - but they don't have the geek appeal of Kinect).
i have a big frontroom with plenty of space (about 10'x10' at a push of open space)
I'll be happy if it can tell when my boss is *ahem*-ing me off and play me some soothing music or buy me a present to calm me down… ;)

Or if you could rig it to tell when the person sitting at the computer was drunk, and it'd stop them sending emails or posting on facebook - now *that* wouldbe useful :D
shaithis
i have a big frontroom with plenty of space (about 10'x10' at a push of open space)
Sounds ideal - got to say that for a “game peripheral” I've been quite impressed with how good it is. As a simple example, it doesn't get confused by having a pendulum clock behind you - which screwed up EyeToy on the PS2 completely.

Voice recognition is about as good as you would expect.