False alarm: Microsoft not open sourcing Kinect
When Joshua Blake tweeted to me on April 18 that Microsoft was planning to open source the coming Kinect software development kit (SDK), I sat up and took notice.
Blake is the OpenKinect Community founder, a Microsoft Surface Most Valuable Professional (MVP) and Technical Director of the InfoStrat Advanced Technology Group.
Blake blogged about his encounter at the Microsoft Mix ‘11 conference last week with Kristin Tolle, Director of the Microsoft Research Natural User Interface team. During a Q&A after a session on Day 3 at Mix, Blake reported that Tolle said (twice) that Microsoft planned to open-source the Kinect SDK — the non-commercial version of which is due out in beta form “this spring.” It wasn’t clear whether Tolle meant all of the Kinect SDK, or just parts of it. There also was no word as to which open-source license Microsoft might use.
