Kinect for PC

[Mr Buckshot]

^ id weep for them and their double digit APMs.

also, didnt the old kinect work on the pc anyway? i know youd need some middleware to get it to function as a controller, but its not like it didnt work at all. how is this any different?

@neuro: some guys at MIT made a robot that uses a kinect to drive around and make 3d models of rooms, and theres a thread on this site somewhere about using the kinect as a cheap motion capture device. id get one just for the latter.

the new PC-specific Kinect is supposed to have improved support for up-close-and-personal motion since the console Kinect was designed with distance in mind (from the TV). Since most PC users, gamers or not, probably sit within arm's reach of the screen, just using the standard console Kinect isn't going to work out.

[Cortexian]

I have a friend who uses his old Kinect as a wireless media controller for his PC. When he's watching video and such he uses gestures to pause/play/next/previous/volume/mute/etc... He does this so he can lie in bed and use Minority Report style gestures to control his movies.

[Warsaw]

Use the Zoom attachment for the Kinect. Problem solved. Yes, it works.

[Kornman00]

I've heard nothing but bad things about zoom until now.

Also, you can't use the official Kinect SDK for Windows with the Xbox Kinect (Beta 2 was the last one which supported this). You need a commercial license for the Kinect SDK in order to sell products which target the Kinect on the PC. So legally speaking, I'm pretty sure a company can't just use an open source driver and library to run their commercial software with first gen Kinects.

[Limited]

Its a smart move by Microsoft really. I'm willing to bet 50% or even more of the sells of the Kinect were simply to 'piss around' with the device, see what they can do with it, which I think is really cool. Microsoft are now trying to take that market and give them the ability to harness that power, whilst making a big wad of cash from it (licensing etc).

People need to understand Kinect isnt just "a think can allow you to wiggle your arms around in a game", its a piece of marvelous technology.

My friend recently bought a Kinect just to mess around, then again he bought a mac 2 years ago and only just opened the box so it will take him ages to finally get around to messing with it.

[Amit]

Your friend bought a computer 2 years ago and didn't open it until now? I don't understand how that works.

[=sw=warlord]

It's a mac.
nuff said.

[Amit]

No.

[Limited]

Your friend bought a computer 2 years ago and didn't open it until now? I don't understand how that works.

He bought it to start making apps for iOS. I kept badgering at him but he still hasnt done anything like that, he says hes used it a few times to put a picture on the screen to look at when on his windows machine

Hes a fool though, bought a brand new xbox (full price) about 2 days before the Xbox slim came out.

[Amit]

Now that's an explanation.