Updated preview SDK now available

Today, we are releasing an updated version of the Kinect for Windows SDK 2.0 public preview. This new SDK includes more than 200 improvements to the core SDK. Most notably, this release delivers the much sought after Kinect Fusion tool kit, which provides higher resolution camera tracking and performance. The updated SDK also includes substantial improvements in the tooling, specifically around Visual Gesture Builder (VGB) and Kinect Studio, and it offers 10 new samples (such as Discrete Gestures Basics, Face, and HD Face Basics) to get you coding faster. All of this adds up to a substantially more stable, more feature-rich product that lets you to get serious about finalizing your applications for commercial deployment and, later this year, for availability in the Windows Store.

The SDK is free and there will be no fees for runtime licenses of commercial applications developed with the SDK.

If you’ve already downloaded the public preview, please be sure to take advantage of today’s updates. And for developers who haven’t used Kinect for Windows v2 yet, there’s no better time to get started!

The Kinect for Windows Team

Key links

• Download the updated SDK 2.0 public preview
• Purchase the v2 sensor
• Take the Microsoft Virtual Academy course on programming Kinect for Windows v2
• Learn about Kinect for Windows v2 features
• Follow us on Facebook and Twitter
• Visit Kinect for Windows technical forums

Comments

• Anonymous
  August 21, 2014
  Does the new SDK include new drivers for the Kinect or am I destined to to only ever get it to blink once before it dies.

• Anonymous
  August 21, 2014
  Why are there two separate Kinect's for Windows and one for XBOX, it just seems to me that its a money making exercise for Microsoft?

• Anonymous
  August 21, 2014
  Hello. Is possible to use the power of the new SDK 2.0 using a v1 sensor?

• Anonymous
  August 21, 2014
  Hello Dave, This new release of the SDK 2.0 public preview includes the Kinect Configuration Verifier, which helps diagnose whether or not you can run v2 and if not, why. You can find it by installing the build and then running the Verifier at the top. Thanks!

• Anonymous
  August 21, 2014
  Alex, The SDK 2.0 is not compatible with the original Kinect for Windows sensor. Thank you.

• Anonymous
  August 21, 2014
  Is this going to be open source?  If not, why should we use the Kinect SDK over OpenNI and specifically Kinfu, the open source implementation of Kinect Fusion.  Since most work using the Kinect is R&D right now, why should we use a library that we can't help improve?

• Anonymous
  August 21, 2014
  Hello Eric, Please post your question in the Kinect for Windows v2 forum:http://aka.ms/k4wv2forum Thank you for the great question.