This Kinect Hack Is Actually Useful (MSFT)

Hackers have found unorthodox uses for Kinect ever since it launched last November, but most of them have been pretty silly or esoteric, like creating a virtual puppet show or 3D image of the objects in a room.

But this hack by a young man who calls himself Mike (or Nitrogen online) is actually useful: he places a Kinect in the corner of his living room and wires it up to a home automation system that controls his lights. As he walks around the room, Kinect sees where is is and turns lights on and off accordingly.

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This Kinect Hack Is Actually Useful (MSFT)

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Microsoft Opens Kinect To Developers, Get Ready For Cool PC Applications (MSFT)

Microsoft is officially bringing the Kinect motion-controlled sensor to the PC. The move could help make consumers excited about Windows again.

It's a smart move -- Kinect is the most innovative consumer product Microsoft has created in eons, and hackers were already creating weird and wonderful PC applications that could use it. Instead of fighting them, Microsoft is enabling them.

This spring, the company will release a software development kit (SDK) for hobbyists and non-commercial PC apps to use Kinect. Later, Microsoft will allow commercial developers to create apps for it as well, but it's still working out the details.

The move could rekindle consumer interest in Windows, which is feeling sales pressure from tablet computers running non-Microsoft operating systems like Apple's iPad and Google's Android. While Kinect is a decent little business for Microsoft -- it probably booked more than $1 billion in sales during the holidays -- Windows is still the company's biggest and most profitable product by far, earning about $13 billion on about $19 billion in revenue over the last year.

Now, don't miss: The Story Behind Kinect, Microsoft's Newest Billion-Dollar Business.

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See Also:

• From Booth Babes To Cirque: The Best Photos From E3
• A Complete Guide To Microsoft's Xbox 360 Kinect

Microsoft Opens Kinect To Developers, Get Ready For Cool PC Applications (MSFT)

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Comment on Kinect and the Power of Big Broadband by Tim

For the millions of people who use the 240 million copies of, just, Windows 7 sold, Redmond-based products make much of an impact in their daily lives. What's a Mac?

Comment on Kinect and the Power of Big Broadband by Tim

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Kinect Creators Making PC Controller (MSFT)

It looks like a motion-controlled interface is coming to the PC next year--but not from Microsoft.

PrimeSense, the privately held Israeli company that licensed core Kinect technology to Microsoft, announced that it is teaming up with PC and peripheral maker Asus to create a similar device for the PC.

It's called Wavi Xtion, and the companies are showing it off at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas this week. The companies imagine it being used not for games, but for browsing multimedia content and accessing the Internet and social networks--basically, the main things consumers use their PCs for.

There will also be APIs for third-party developers and a Wavi Xtion store where developers can sell motion-controlled apps.

The system will launch in the second quarter, but the companies haven't released pricing info yet.

Last month, a Korean game developer claimed that Microsoft was working on a version of Kinect for the PC, but Microsoft hasn't confirmed any such plans. Hackers figured out how to hook a Kinect up to a Windows PC almost immediately, and have come up with some pretty interesting applications.

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See Also:

• Here Are Some Crazy Things People Are Doing With Kinect
• Kinect Coming To PCs, Says Game Developer
• Microsoft Getting "An Important Psychological Win" With Kinect

Kinect Creators Making PC Controller (MSFT)

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Here Are Some Crazy Things People Are Doing With Kinect (MSFT)

Kinect, the motion-controlled sensor for Xbox 360, contains some startling technology for a $150 consumer gadget. It's like when GPS navigators first became popular, bringing what was once highly sophisticated military technology to the masses, or when the iPhone made capacitive multitouch screens the new standard for mobile phones.

As with any sufficiently advanced technology, the community wasn't going to settle for using Kinect strictly as it was intended.

Almost as soon as it was released, people began trying to figure out how Kinect worked. Then came the hacks, then the alternate applications. Hopefully Microsoft will see fit to buy some of these ideas and release them for the product itself. In the meantime, look on in wonder.

Click here to see how people are using Kinect in strange ways >

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Here Are Some Crazy Things People Are Doing With Kinect (MSFT)

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Microsoft Is Having Kinect Shortages (MSFT)

Microsoft is having serious Kinect shortages, especially in Europe, Industry Gamers reports.

Some analysts had speculated that Microsoft had been engineering the shortages to stimulate demand, but Microsoft denies this, which seems right to us. Engineered shortages are much more a fantasy than a reality, and the logistics and estimating demand for a new device like Kinect are fiendishly difficult.

This is a pretty good problem to have -- demand is so good that Microsoft can't keep up! But at the same time, in this crucial holiday season, they need to fix it fast.

Now read: Bill Gates Now Promoting Apple Macs On His Blog.

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Microsoft Is Having Kinect Shortages (MSFT)

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