New Kinect hardware confirmed for Kinect for Windows
Posted Wednesday, November 23, 2011 at 4:39 pm by Nanopunk
Microsoft announced today that new “fully supported” Kinect hardware will be released for the Kinect for Windows commercial program – announced earlier this month – that will roll out early in the new year.
The new hardware is based on the current Xbox 360 model and features a number of improvements and adjustments to the hardware to improve PC compatibility.
“We have optimized certain hardware components and made firmware adjustments which better enable PC-centric scenarios. Coupled with the numerous upgrades and improvements our team is making to the Software Development Kit (SDK) and runtime , the new hardware delivers features and functionality that Windows developers and Microsoft customers have been asking for.”
A few changes include:
- Shorter USB cable for better suitability across a range of different computers.
- Addition of a small dongle for compab with other USB peripherals.
- “Near Mode” via new firmware, the depth camera will be able to accurately and precisely track objects as close as 50 centimeters. Graceful degradation down to 40 centimeters. Microsoft believes that the new mode will enable a new field of “close up” applications.
Because of Microsoft’s “deep commitment” to Natural User Interface”, the corporation is adamant that licenced customers participating in Kinect for Windows will receive full and ongoing support. Customers will receive speech and human tracking updates, and other general support.
Microsoft recently announced an incubation project “Kinect Accelerator” headed by Microsoft BizSpark . Kinect Accelerator is open to developers and start-ups who have an idea to leverage the Kinect’s (Windows or Xbox) functionality. Ten developers will be chosen and flown up to Seattle, Washington, to participate n the incubation program, running from March to April. Applications close January 25th, 2012 and the project is open to all countries.
As listed on the Microsoft blog, criteria for participation includes:
- Any Kinect-enabled application on Windows or Xbox that can be a commercial business
- Manufacturing to retail, education to healthcare, art installations to gaming, social to interactive play
- Can be cloud-hosted, on any platform, but needs to be an application
- Could be one view of an application that may also have a web UI, mobile UI, etc
- Kinect-controlled applications, like what you have on your phone, but on a big screen or a computer screen
- Content you might expect to consume in your living room or in an operating room
- Your company does not necessarily need experience developing with Kinect, but the business concept does need to leverage Kinect capabilities as part of the final offering.
- Your team must also be willing to develop the technical skills required to bring your solution to a functioning prototype.
Note: This post comes from Techromp.com
Kinect learns a new trick, voice-control in Australia
Posted Wednesday, October 26, 2011 at 5:56 pm by Damè Damjanovski
Microsoft has today unveiled a new voice-recognition update to Xbox using it’s popular Kinect product as well as a new Zune streaming music service.
The voice command implementation Microsoft is releasing in mid-December is no doubt bound to draw much comparison to Apple’s recent introduction of ‘Siri’ a voice based command interface for the iPhone.
Sadly, those who were hoping that they’ll now be able to navigate their way around the Xbox dashboard handsfree may be disappointed, as the commands are currently limited to operation within a handful of Microsoft built applications (primarily the updated Zune Marketplace and games such as Kinect Sports Season Two) and only for a handful of explicit functions.
The new system works quite simply – if you’re watching a movie or listening to music through Zune, you simply say “Xbox” which then triggers an onscreen list of voice-command option. Most basic functionality that you’d expect when watching a video were present, “Pause, Play, Fast-Forward, Stop” and for those who are too indecisive to pick what to watch, there is also a “Pick something for me” option.
The commands worked well with a clear articulate voice in a quiet room, but seemed to struggle as soon as ambient noise or a stumbling accent were introduced. Those with kids running around the home may not want to throw out the remote control quiet yet.
Despite the limitations of the current voice implementation, David McLean – Australian Director of Consumer Channel Group at Microsoft says he’s excited about where the company is taking this technology, and expects to be able to talk more about the exciting developments in voice once Microsoft demonstrates more on it’s upcoming Windows 8 product.
Beyond the new voice-command system, the addition of Music to the Zune content catalogue is a welcome one, although the popularity of a subscription-based music service is yet to be tested in the Australia market. With average broadband speeds slower than in the US, and approximately half of it’s 1.4 million Australian consoles connected to Xbox Live, the new service might not see too much uptake until the NBN begins to penetrate more homes.
In the meantime, at $12 per month with over 11 million tracks in it’s library the Zune Music Subscription service is a pretty good deal if your Xbox sits at the centre of your entertainment system and you’ve the bandwidth to spare.
Those looking to expand their collection of Kinect titles will be pleased to hear that today’s announcement showcased some of the new titles Microsoft are releasing including a surprisingly fun kids titles “Disneyland Adventures”. The most impressive Kinect release was actually Kinect Sports Season Two, which seems to be building on where the first Kinect Sports left off, and using the gestural platform in more advanced ways, whilst still being extremely intuitive to use.
The Zune Marketplace update with voice-commands and subscription service will both be available by mid-december, though you can try out the voice features as of tomorrow with the launch of Kinect Sports Season Two.
Gallery
Commercial Kinect SDK may come with Marketplace
Posted Monday, September 5, 2011 at 7:01 pm by Jason Cartwright
On June 16th this year, Microsoft made the Kinect for Windows SDK available for enthusiasts. This was an official release providing access to all the Kinect hardware, unlike the hacks that came before it. Since then, Kinect is being used in new and exciting ways, yep, your a creative lot.
I sat down with Stuart Tansley, acting product manager for Kinect for Windows SDK from Microsoft Research and Lawrence Crumpton, Academic Developer Evangelist, to discuss how people are using the SDK. We also discussed why we still don’t have voice controls in Australia, the commercial release of the Kinect SDK and much more.
For more info, head over to Kinect For Windows SDK. For all the creative creations, check out http://www.kinecthacks.com/.
Forza 4 and Star Wars Kinect playable at Tech.Ed
Posted Friday, September 2, 2011 at 9:32 am by Jason Cartwright
During last night’s closing party at Tech.Ed Australia, attendees were treated to something pretty special. Two hotly anticipated upcoming games, Forza 4 and Star Wars Kinect were actually playable at the event. Forza 4 is due for release on the 11th of October and Star Wars Kinect was recently postponed till early 2012 release.
Forza 4 showed off some stunning visuals including tweaks to the lighting system to increase realism. Its understood that previous generations required hard coded brightness / exposure levels in certain locations because the engine wasn’t able to accurately display how the car should look.
One of the biggest questions and concerns hard-core racing sim and Forza fans have is the integration or use of Kinect in Forza 4. The good news is that Forza 4 uses Kinect in a very subtle and optional way as developers Turn10 were conscious of not dumbing it down just to appeal to entry-level gamers. Forza 4 is a driving game that uses Kinect, rather than a Kinect Game.
Star Wars Kinect was also enjoyed by attendees, allowing for the childhood lightsaber-wielding fantasies to come true. One of the biggest concerns with the game is input lag. After early builds were shown to be laggy, developers worked hard on updates to solve the issue. Its difficult to say which build was on display last night, but there was still a small lag between players movements and the Kinect interpretation translating to on-screen movement. Given the game is delayed now, this may be a problem they need some more time to solve to get the experience right before unleashing it on the public. That aside, the attendees that did play, were having a bunch of fun.
Update
Star Wars Kinect on display last night was the same build from E3 earlier this year.
Those non-gaming attendees were treated to a variety of other entertainment during the closing party. Go-Karts in the underground car park, comedy and music performances in the main arena and an array of sporting events on the show floor.
White Kinect coming with Kinect Star Wars
Posted Monday, July 25, 2011 at 8:58 pm by Jason Cartwright
In a photo posted to the Kinect for Xbox 360 Facebook page, we now know that there will be a white version of Kinect. While Apple is more commonly associated with white accessories, Microsoft are having their shot at fitting in with the catalogue entertainment setup that none of us have.
Personally I love glossy black electronics, but for some this news will be the best thing since sliced bread. So how do you get it ? The Kinect Star Wars console that was announced last week will include a white Kinect. No word on wether the white Kinect will be sold separately.
Update
Thanks to @Disco_box, it looks like we will be getting the bundle here in Australia. The image below was tweeted by @XboxAustralia. When placed with the R2D2-style console the white Kinect makes a lot more sense, however that controller is horrendous.
More information @ Kinect for Xbox360
Kinect SDK beta now available. Non-commercial use only.
Posted Friday, June 17, 2011 at 12:55 pm by Jason Cartwright
Overnight Microsoft Researched has released the Software Development Kit for Kinect. As promised at Mix, the Kinect SDK beta is Microsoft’s official support for developing new and exciting applications using the Kinect sensor. This is largely a response to an incredibly passionate community of Kinect Hacks.
The biggest difference between those applications seen at http://www.kinecthacks.com/ and those that will be developed using the official SDK is that developers now have access to the full skeletal tracking. The SDK is effectively gives Windows developers the same access as Xbox developers get to Kinect.
This SDK includes the following features:
Raw sensor streams
Access to raw data streams from the depth sensor, color camera sensor, and four-element microphone array enables developers to build upon the low-level streams that are generated by the Kinect sensor.
Skeletal tracking
The capability to track the skeleton image of one or two people moving within the Kinect field of view make it easy to create gesture-driven applications.
Advanced audio capabilities
Audio processing capabilities include sophisticated acoustic noise suppression and echo cancellation, beam formation to identify the current sound source, and integration with the Windows speech recognition API.
Sample code and documentation
The SDK includes more than 100 pages of technical documentation. In addition to built-in help files, the documentation includes detailed walkthroughs for most samples provided with the SDK.
Easy installation
The SDK installs quickly, requires no complex configuration, and the complete installer size is less than 100 MB. Developers can get up and running in just a few minutes with a standard standalone Kinect sensor unit (widely available at retail outlets).
During the launch event on Channel9, a number of developers showed off what they were able to develop within 24 hours of having access to the Kinect SDK. One of the most impressive concepts was controlling the A.R. Drone using your body. While the demo was buggy, the concept is awesome. As an owner of a Drone, I would love to control the drone using body gestures and voice control: friend impress level = 100.
During the Live stream, Microsoft staff suggest developers share their creations via twitter using the #KinectSDK tag, but I can’t help but think a Kinect Store would be a better way of distributing and getting attention for your creations. Personally I can’t wait to see what developers come up with, my Kinect is now connected to my computer.. I’m waiting.
Unfortunately Microsoft have “nothing to announce today” in regards to a commercial SDK, this release is for enthusiasts only. The uses for Kinect will undoubtedly take off after this release just from community enthusiasm, so imagine if there was a revenue stream possible from writing Kinect applications.
The Kinect SDK beta is available @ http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/um/redmond/projects/kinectsdk/download.aspx
