Microsoft won’t give up on Kinect for Windows; next iteration coming 2014

By Michael Archambault
last updated

At Tuesday’s reveal of the Xbox One, Microsoft showed off their next generation Kinect sensor. Our friends up in Redmond don’t want you to forget that the new Kinect unit will also be heading to Windows.

Microsoft released the original software development kit (SDK) in the spring of 2011 for Windows 7. The goal of the program was to expand Kinect’s usage scenario through 3rd party and indie developers. That being said, we have seen some amazing uses of Kinect in the fields of consumer shopping and medicine.

Reflexion Health, a medical software company, had teamed up with the United States Navy Medical Center to advance physical therapy with Kinect for Windows. Dr. Ravi, co-founder of Reflexion, had stated that:

“Kinect for Windows helps motivate patients to do physical therapy—and the data set we gather when they use the RMT is becoming valuable to demonstrate what form of therapy is most effective, what types of patients react better to what type of therapy, and how to best deliver that therapy. Those questions have vexed people for a long time.”

The new generation of Kinect features a higher fidelity 1080p HD camera, an expanded view of field, improved skeletal tracking, and active infrared capabilities. The new unit is a step forward not only for gamers, but those in the medical field who see Kinect as a way to motivate and help analyze patient conditions.

It was announced at the Xbox One Reveal event that the new Kinect sensor has the added ability to track a person’s distribution of weight, exerted force on individual limbs, and heartbeat all in real time. The future of modern medicine might be here and it just might be Kinect.

The new SDK will most likely be shown off at the upcoming BUILD 2013 event in San Francisco, so stay tuned.

What non-gaming scenarios would you like to see Kinect being used in? 

Sources: Reflexion Health Case Study (opens in new tab), Kinect for Windows Blog (opens in new tab), The Fire House

Michael Archambault
Michael Archambault
44 Comments
  • I don't know, but I saw this today and thought 'they should have shown this at the reveal'
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hi5kMNfgDS4
  • All I can say is WOW and yes they should have shown this at the reveal
  • But how does the system respond to identical twins? Put that in your pipe and smoke it!
  • LOL, definitely something that should be tested and recorded
  • they really did a great job on the new kinnect, from what can be seen in the demonstration, really cool,
  • Good stuff!!!
  • Wow
  • Has anyone built a homegrown JARVIS with Kinect yet?
  • Will it be WP 7.8 compatible and run instagram?
  • comment of the day goes to you sir
  • *bows*
  • Yeah...I have no plans of ever allowing Microsoft (or anyone) to force me to have a 1080p camera at home, capturing all I do, my voice and my house.
    There are limits where privacy is concerned. These Big Brother-esque things really start to get on my nerves. And I highly doubt the EU will allow these kinds of things lightly. Even that medical thing.
  • This doesn't run all the time, it's only on when you have your Xbox on. And even still, you can disconnect it. You not required to have it on at all times. Your comment makes you sound paranoid.
  • That's true, you can disconnect it. Still, that's not my concern.
    It's the way these things are evolving and the fact that you're allowing a corporation to enter through your house and literally monitorize your every move if you're not careful. These apparently harmless things have a dangerous part to them. And I personally don't feel confortable with that. (same with Google Glasses etc) Call me paranoid. I don't care. I don't like the idea of having systems that can be connected to the internet and collect a sh*t ton of personal data, including physical data. And you can bet that these issues WILL be raised sooner or later by Governments and lawyers.
  • What exactly do you think is going to happen if they know the size of your body? They aren't going to clone you. Lol
  • So what r u doing posting your personal opinion on internet?
  • Wrong. Kinect must be connected in order for the Xbox one to work. And if you use it on your primary tv, and use the tv overlay feature, it will be on pretty often. Being concern is not paranoia, especially in this age where everything is logged and hacked.
  • That's one speculation. I have not read anything that says it must be on all the time to work.
  • Just because you haven't read it doesn't mean it's speculation.  I can't stand twats like you. 
     
    http://www.ign.com/articles/2013/05/21/xbox-one-will-not-function-without-kinect-attached
     
     
     
  • ha ha ha ha ha ha. you are the largest turd in the world. You mad bro? By the way, there are articles that says that it is not nescesary to have kinect plugged in. Find it you twat. lololololololololololololol
  • its always good to be a bit paranoid ;) anyway the kinnect is nothing to worry about if you dont want to use it you can always disconnect it, cover it up, or point the sensors at a wall; and not sure what EU has to do with what you do in your own home, you can have 20 4K cameras around your house and noone would give a fuck; its not like you will be walking around the street with the kinnect strapped to your head......oh right thats what google are doing with their crap glasses
  • Exactly! That's a great point!!!! Xbox doesn't get hacked and why would anyone be interested enough to hack and look at what someone is doing? That's hella vain to think that. my question would be, what are people doing that they need to hide from the public. To me IMO, that is suspicious. Google glasses want to see every moment if your life so they can better target you and make you the user a walking purchasing machine. Xbox's kinet is way different than Google's money hungry add producing machine.
  • The mic is on the Kinect, and the Xbox can be turned on by voice. Nuff said.
  • You can unplug Kinect. Nuff said. drops mic on floor, stares hard and turns and walks away with hands in the air cuz I don't care. ;)
  • It would take one whistleblower that MS is using the camera to spy on people and the company would go under. The CIA will probably tap in to watch you jerk off though, they love shit like that those terrorist fuckers. ;-)
  • Yes, i would be less concerned about Microsoft collecting the data than Governments hacking in. 1984?
  • They should make the new kinnect compatible with Windows 8 natively, so you can control your Win8 pc just like you can the xbox one.
     
  • They are, coming in 2014. For now there is Leap Motion. I will definitely get a Kinect for my PC.
  • I was disappointed that it didn't track your fingers. But maybe head tracking, like TrackIR, can be good, if they are being truthful about the "close to zero lag".
  • Wow so I can use this on my PC? Kinect software? What do ya know Paul!
  • Uh, yeah, that's why it says windows 8 in the picture. It is a Kinect for windows PCs. There is one now, just rather scarce. As for paranoia, any new tech coming out now, like all other before hand, can be used for good or bad, just depends on the person utilizing it.
  • It's a bit surprising they are iterating so fast on Kinect, but it's a very good idea because the hardware and the software running it are incredibly good.
  • I want to see the kinect used in sports training.  I did a big concept writeup on this and sent it to Kurt Kinetic a while back.  (They're makers of cycling trainers, including some that allow you to get out of the saddle and lean the bike...  emulating more natural riding.)  As a cyclist I absolutely hate spinning indoors on the trainer.  I will literally ride outside in the middle of winter in sub-zero temperaturs during a snow storm but almost never jump on the trainer even though there is a bike set up in it ready to go.  Why?   Because it's SO boring.  Even most of the training videos only make it slightly less so. However, if you had a Kinect based system that integrated with your trainer/cycling computer there are any number of possibilites that could be opened up to make the experience much better and dare I say it...  even fun. You could have a virtual world to ride through.  The trainer/cycling computer would feed the system your speed, cadence, power output, heart rate, etc.  The Kinect would monitor your movements on the bike...  are you standing up out of the saddle or sitting back spinning easy?  Are you leaning into the turns?  It could then adjust the simulation to account for that.   Doing so would help make the virtual experience MUCH more realistic and interactive.  Given a decent physics algorithm I think it could even tell you things like if you were taking a corner too fast or if you were leaning too much and would have likely crashed in real life. You could have virtual courses that followed real life routes and races.  Want to experience what it's like to ride the Almanzo 100 or even the Tour de France?   Well fire it up and do so!   You could race against your friends performances or even against pros just to see how badly you'd get your ass beat.  Or you could just go out and bike around an open world enviornment at will. You could even have virtual remote training sessions where you rode with your friends/family/team mates and thanks to the audio/visual capabilities of the Kinect paired with Xbox Live (or a similar service) you could see each other and chat in real time.  An avatar of them could be rendered on screen so if they were ahead of you, you would actually see them there. A system like that could change the way that people train.
  • I bet you will get alot of cycling fanatics responding to your ambitious post. ;-)
  • God yes that would be epic.
  • You have some really good ideas, you should get in touch with a developer and put this in motion.
  • That is amazing. I love how you have a great sense of tech imagination!!!(not being sarcastic) Run with this, take out there, I would just give you my money now! Take my cash!
  • Here is my question.  The first Kinect for the old 360 had a USB connection which let me hook it up to the computer to play around with the SDK.  However, the Kinect that came with the newer slim 360 had a proprietary connection.  Does this new Kinect only come with a proprietary connection?  If so, then that completely cripples the chances that this will really take off on PC's.  Very few amatuer developers will be able to invest $250 in a Kinect for Windows device.
  • Those retail shopping displays, to cut down on germs from touching the same surface as hundreds of others =P
  • This is cool. We used to use the Wii to help patients rehabilitate in nursing homes. It kept some of our people pretty active. Amazing to see people in their 80s playing the same games as teenagers. Hilarious process teaching them too. Not at all surprised the kinnect is going down the same path. Good work.
  • I just wish they would make ONE Kinect so I can just take one and switch it between my Xbox and computer. The hacked drivers for the current 360 Kinect aren't that great either.
  • The new Kinect may be the most amazing part of the Xbox1. Microsoft has one of the best r&d teams in the world, and its great to see some if their more inventive stuff see the light of day.
  • That is amazing. I'm really looking forward to seeing how they are going to put all of this into games. The experience will be on another level.
  • Why doesn't Kinect work like Leap Motion already on Windows? Is that even going to happen for regular consumers?