It’s Official: Kinect for Windows is Coming Soon
To commemorate the one-year anniversary of Kinect and the Kinect Effect, I sent an email to my team earlier this week. I’d like to quote for you what I said to them, “It all started with a revolutionary sensor and amazing software that turned voice and movement into magic. With that magical combination, last year the Interactive Entertainment Business at Microsoft showed the world how to re-imagine gaming. This year, we’re showing the world how to re-imagine entertainment. Next year, with Kinect for Windows, we will help the world re-imagine everything else.”
To mark the milestone, the Kinect for Windows team is celebrating with our own milestones: We’re starting up this blog, launching the official Kinect for Windows web site, and releasing beta 2 of the Kinect for Windows SDK. (And, yes, we will celebrate the anniversary more this evening– it’s been an amazing journey these past months!)
I know many of you are eagerly awaiting the Kinect for Windows commercial program coming in early 2012. My team is working hard to deliver a great product and I’m confident that it will be worth the wait.
We’ve already seen strong enthusiasm for Kinect among developers who have done amazing things with it in countless different ways, from education to healthcare, gaming to art installations, manufacturing to retail.
Currently, we have more than 200 companies taking part in our pilot program. They are telling us how Kinect for Windows will help them transform their products, their processes, their brands, and their businesses. Putting the power of Kinect + Windows into the hands of business leaders and technical visionaries will give them the tools they need to develop novel solutions for everything from training employees to visualizing data, from configuring a car to managing an assembly line.
The updated software development kit that we released today includes some great new features that help us get closer to realizing this vision, including faster skeletal tracking, better accuracy rate when it comes to skeletal tracking and joint recognition, and the ability to plug and unplug your Kinect without losing work/productivity.
Every day, I come to work and learn about another amazing application that a partner or other developer is doing with Kinect for Windows. I look forward to next year, when the potential goes exponential and everyone’s ideas, including yours, are part of that equation.
If you haven’t done so already, download the SDK and re-imagine the world with us.
--Craig Eisler
General Manager, Kinect for Windows
Comments
Anonymous
November 03, 2011
When will the Kinect Fusion software be available in the SDK?Anonymous
November 03, 2011
The www.kinectforwindows.org is not working. When will it be live? Or are you having server issues?Anonymous
November 03, 2011
Having issues with www.KinectForWindows.org. I am very exceited to update my 'Kinect for Media Center' application to work with the beta 2 of the Kinect for Windows SDK! Please get the site up soon. www.TheMediaCenterProject.comAnonymous
November 03, 2011
Yeah KinectForWindows.org is not working and the old Kinect For Windows SDK site hasn't updated.Anonymous
November 03, 2011
WinRumors has a direct link to the download on the Microsoft Download Center: www.microsoft.com/.../details.aspxAnonymous
November 04, 2011
The Kinect for Windows web site is live. You can download beta 2 of the Kinect for Windows SDK and learn more about this release on the site. Thanks and let us know what you think!Anonymous
November 04, 2011
Keep improving the sensor. I hope the Kinect for Windows will feature higher resolution cameras and other improvements over the original Kinect sensor. You should continually move the hardware forward along with the advancements in software.Anonymous
November 07, 2011
Looking forward to the next version.Anonymous
December 06, 2011
The comment has been removedAnonymous
December 17, 2011
Will Kinect Windows also work with the Xbox 360?