Kinect

Last year when Microsoft announced an adapter kit that would allow Kinect for Xbox One sensors to work with Windows, some wondered whether the company would cease making Kinect for Windows sensors.

On April 2, we learned that the answer is yes.

Starting today, Microsoft will no longer be making Kinect for Windows v2 sensors, officials announced in a blog post. The Kinect Adapter announced last year does allow users to connect a Kinect for Xbox One sensor -- though not a Kinect for Xbox 360 sensor -- to Windows 8.0 and 8.1 PCs and tablets.

Microsoft is making available a $49 adapter kit that will allow Kinect for Xbox One sensors available for use with Windows 8/8.1 PCs and tablets.

Microsoft also is enabling developers to make their Kinect apps available in the Windows Store for the first time, officials said on October 22.

Microsoft's been awfully busy at this year's SIGGRAPH conference: <embers of the company's research division have already illustrated how they can interpret speech based on the vibrations of a potato chip bag and turn shaky camera footage into an experience that feels like flying.

Look at the list of projects Microsofties have been working on long enough, though, and something of a theme appears: These folks are really into capturing motion, depth and object deformation with the help of some slightly specialized hardware.

A $500 “nano-camera” that can operate at the speed of light has been developed by researchers in the MIT Media Lab.

The three-dimensional camera, which was presented last week at Siggraph Asia in Hong Kong, could be used in medical imaging and collision-avoidance detectors for cars, and to improve the accuracy of motion tracking and gesture-recognition devices used in interactive gaming.

Microsoft will include a more advanced version of its Kinect sensor and camera with every $499.99 Xbox One console. Ever since this was first announced back in May, Microsoft has defended adding the Kinect to the Xbox One package, even calling it an "essential and integrated part of the platform."

L33tdawg: Reminds me of the DiCOM-WAVE project from last year's HackWEEKDAY - an open source DICOM image viewer with Microsoft Kinect as its control interface.

Earlier this week at Microsoft's DemoFest in Redmond, Wash., the company's research arm showed off an incredible union of technologies that could finally usher in an inexpensive solution for people who want to communicate with a computer through sign language.

Microsoft will make available a new Kinect sensor for Windows in 2014, officials said on May 23.

The new Kinect for Windows sensor will include many of the technologies that Microsoft showed off in the Kinect for Xbox One product earlier this week. Microsoft is promising the Kinect for Windows sensor also will include higher fidelity, an expanded field of view, skeletal tracking and new active infrared -- all features of the Kinect for Xbox One.

It's been 12 years since Chad Ruble's mother suffered a stroke that led to aphasia, a disorder that affects language processing but not intelligence. Most of the one million Americans who have the disorder experience difficulty both reading and writing, according to the National Aphasia Association, and Chad's mother Lindy was unable to recognize text and thus unable to use a keyboard.

So Chad did what any computer-savvy son should: he hacked a Kinect to help her.

The Kinect for Windows team has been hard at work this summer, and I have some very exciting developments to share with you regarding our roadmap between now and the end of the year.

On October 8, Kinect for Windows is coming to China. China is a leader in business and technology innovation. We are very excited to make Kinect for Windows available in China so that developers and businesses there can innovate with Kinect for Windows and transform experiences through touch-free solutions.

Microsoft's popular Kinect for Xbox 360 has inspired countless ingenious "hacks" since its launch at the end of 2010.

The motion-sensing device has been modified to produce everything from real-time light sabers to nifty trash bins which catch your garbage (however bad your aim), proving a catalyst for creativity and invention.