Kinect to expand to business world

October 31st, 2011, 20:43 Posted By: wraggster

Microsoft plans to launch a commercial version of its Kinect SDK early next year, giving businesses the opportunity to create their own software to make us of the device's unique capabilities.
Microsoft product manager David Dennis told Gamasutra that over 200 brands across 25 countries have signed up for the programme. While most remain anonymous for the time being to avoid tipping off competitors, Toyota and marketing agency Razorfish are among those confirmed to be involved.
Yet Microsoft does not plan to build any applications itself. "We're putting development resources that understand this tech in the field and helping [companies] build and fast track [their own applications] to market," Dennis said. "Microsoft doesn't want to build, say, an education widget.
"Our goal is to build an ecosystem and a business platform to let our partners do that."
Kinect has already been used outside of the living room in a variety of ways since the device was hacked shortly after its release last November, most notably by Toronto surgeons who found theysaved an hour per procedure by calling up and manipulating images using gesture controls.
That, and other hacks, prompted Microsoft to release an official Windows SDK for the device in June, though Dennis says that industry had expressed an interest in Kinect before it was even released.
"Even before we launched Kinect, the phone was ringing off the hook from people saying: 'Holy [cow], how can we get involved?'," he said. "We think it has the potential to revolutionise our industry as well."
Kinect celebrates its first anniversary this Friday. The Xbox 360 motion sensor was named by Guinness World Records as thefastest-selling consumer electronics device of all time after 8 million units were sold in its first 60 days on sale.


http://www.next-gen.biz/news/kinect-...business-world

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