Microsoft has announced that Kinect is coming to Windows on February 1.
While you’ll of course be playing games on it, as has been explained when the crossover was first revealed, there’s more to it than just waving your arms to play Microsoft Flight. There are a number of office and communications uses for it as well, among other things.
Above you’ll see the box art, as the product is being repackaged for the PC crowd. What you won’t see above, but will see if you visit Amazon, is a price of $250, $100 more than the peripheral costs on the Xbox 360. Despite it looking to be exactly the same device. And that same device working just fine on a PC, as hackers have been showing us for over a year.
Hrm.
We’re checking with Microsoft to see if that’s a typo or not.
Blood Apathy
Tuesday, January 10, 2012 at 2:52 PMThere is still the question of if this is identical to the xbox kinect or not.
Glenn
Tuesday, January 10, 2012 at 2:54 PMOr compatible as such like a 360 controller.
Jeff
Tuesday, January 10, 2012 at 2:55 PMAlso would the software be fully compatible if I bought some kind of plug for my Xbox Kinect?
Jordaan Mylonas
Tuesday, January 10, 2012 at 2:58 PMMS have already said they have Kinect working at a range of 40cm for Windows.
It was heavily implied this was achieved through a firmware patch, however in reality it may require better hardware, which would explain the increased cost.
Remember back when it was the Natal, and could track individual finger joints, the cost was predicted to be between $200 and $300
GooberMan
Tuesday, January 10, 2012 at 4:01 PMFrom my own tests, a bog standard Kinect can capture depth data at 40cm using the OpenNI libraries (which are written by the guys that made the original Kinect hardware). Haven’t tried head tracking from that close, all my skeleton work has been upper body so some distance from the camera is required by default.
Not seeing the need for an additional $100 myself. Will have to play with it eventually to see what’s different.
mchaza
Tuesday, January 10, 2012 at 3:00 PMdoes it work reading only uper body, from 1 meter away
It would be pretty useless if to use as navigation if you have to get up and move a few meters back.
boomtish
Tuesday, January 10, 2012 at 3:01 PMMicrosoft show themselves in the foot by making Kinect with a proprietary connection. I only expect that type of short-sightedness from Nintendo.
boomtish
Tuesday, January 10, 2012 at 3:02 PM“show” = “shot”
Desert Dog
Tuesday, January 10, 2012 at 3:17 PMNot sure what you mean by “proprietary connection”. The Kinect uses USB and an external AC adapter, though you don’t need the latter if you have a slim 360.
FatShady
Tuesday, January 10, 2012 at 3:25 PMthats what he’s saying… that the slim connection is NOT a USB one at all. Gotta agree with Boom here, would be much easier if regular old USB was sufficient.
Blood Apathy
Tuesday, January 10, 2012 at 3:27 PMFrom what i understand the regular usb doesnt provide enough voltage, which is why there is the option of the AC adapter or the proprietary plug. The AC adaptor works fine when the special plug is not available, i dont see what the issue is with boom.
FatShady
Tuesday, January 10, 2012 at 3:34 PMWindows 8 PC’s will ship with a Kinect port!!!!!
Problem solved. no-one wants to plug even more shit into their overstuffed power boards as it is.. so i’d welcome an unpowered option.. Can you just plug it into 2 USB’s?? (I dont know the electronics of things with power and volts and watts and stuff)
Blood Apathy
Tuesday, January 10, 2012 at 3:51 PMI dont believe this for a moment. What mother board manufacturer is going to put the cost and space into putting a port that is only any god for kinect on the board.
The ONLY way this would work is if they had some sort of thunderbolt to kinect adapter. Not even sure what voltage thunderbolt is, but seriously, the kinect plus is only used for the kinect as far as i know.
FatShady
Tuesday, January 10, 2012 at 4:22 PMI was taking the piss actually, just that I forgot to clarify that with a :) or similar…
But I would prefer this to be Kinect without the need for external power
Desert Dog
Tuesday, January 10, 2012 at 4:14 PMI still don’t understand his argument. The Windows Kinect won’t have the proprietary plug. It’ll be USB + AC adapter, like an external hard drive. The current Xbox Kinect has the proprietary plug which is circumvented by a cable that comes with it!
FatShady
Tuesday, January 10, 2012 at 4:20 PMAH now I see where you are coming from. You’re saying the PC version won’t have the prop plug.. now i get it.. Silly me!
It would be good if they could get it to work without the AC power and only on a USB port? Not sure if that would bever be possible.
Richard Morwood
Tuesday, January 10, 2012 at 3:33 PMClose range Kinect, designed for 40cm. Hoyts have been having a “Imagine what’s possible with Kinect” advertisement going before movies. I think this looks really cool!! Can see individual finger articulation :)
But for $250??? Wow, what a price jump!
incontrovertible
Tuesday, January 10, 2012 at 3:38 PMmoney money money
Kid
Tuesday, January 10, 2012 at 4:31 PMBahahahahaha!!!
pat (not that pat)
Tuesday, January 10, 2012 at 4:32 PMDear Luke the moron/hack/tool.
Would it not have been slightly informed for you to write more than two slightly tangible paragraphs of tripe? Perhaps qualify the I/O method? USB 3.0 maybe? Yes, no? Oh well, the comments will clear that up for the masses.
Truth be told, this is exactly the kind of sub-par bollocks that Kotaku has accepted as credible gaming journalism. At least Serrels has a loveable boy like quality. I urge Kotaku readers to truly look at the articles and evaluate how good they actually are when they aren’t merely quoting info from another website, or melting your brain with an archaic screenshot. (which I love, btw, to be fair.)
This article is not well researched, it is not informative, funny or intelligent.
Why should the gamers with half a brain fill in the blanks??
Fail.
P.S Kotaku fanbois/fangurls have at me. I’ll check in tomorrow.
P.P.S Fuck you Chazz.
P.P.P.S At least I am trying to compel them to write a decent article. As we all know they are more than capable of that.
Kid
Tuesday, January 10, 2012 at 5:49 PMYeah all our hard earned money is going to waste here. Oh wait, no subscription fees or obligations…
Go back to IGN if you want quality and community.
pat (not that pat)
Tuesday, January 10, 2012 at 6:07 PMOh sweet dayam!
It would appear that I’ve been put in my place by being told to “go back” to a website that I’ve honestly never visited. Almost as though I’ve been booted from a whorehouse of bawdy lasses having been told to return/”go back” to the park Hyatt.
Incase you didn’t realize pretty much every gaming news website is free. Therefore my expectation that one of the better gaming websites (Kotaku) should be capable of even the most simple writing standard isn’t an unreasonable expectation to nurture.
Next!
mchaza
Tuesday, January 10, 2012 at 6:55 PMI dont get it, there is like 100s of different gaming websites, dont come on kotaku no more if you dont like it, sure most of Kotaku US stuff is rubbish compared to the great work from Kotaku AU, but you are that annoyed by the quality just go somewhere else for all your news, there is plenty of other places.
John
Tuesday, January 10, 2012 at 7:30 PMHe is just trying to get them to write something in the article instead of a half arsed copy paste. It is not that hard and they are being lazy. Why is it that there are people that don’t want the standards raised? That is a serious question.
pat (not that pat)
Tuesday, January 10, 2012 at 8:39 PMCheers man :)
Nick L
Tuesday, January 10, 2012 at 4:43 PMThis may seem like a really stupid comment, but I really dig the simplicty of the box.
Kyonove
Tuesday, January 10, 2012 at 6:25 PMI guess this explains why all the recent Kinect marketing i have seen has featured no games at all, rather, being focusing on the tech itself.
Wayno@War
Tuesday, January 10, 2012 at 10:36 PMWait, what? People are actually still buying this shit?