Kinect

According to the speculation reported by DigiTimes next generation game console from Sony will feature body-movement controls like those offered by Microsoft’s Kinect. The game console PlayStation 4 is scheduled for launch in 2012.

The move is not surprising as long as Sony’s motion gaming technology resembles that of Nintendo’s Wiimote motion gaming technology. The report states that Foxconn and Pegatron Technology will be assembling the PS4 for Sony with production at the end of 2011 for a 2012 launch.
 

This week Microsoft released a beta version of a development kit for its Kinect motion sensing device. Now developers will be able to build applications to use the Kinect on PCs running Windows 7. The SDK is currently available only for noncommercial use.

With the SDK developers can access a number of streams from sensors in the Kinect including the depth sensor, color camera sensor and the microphone array.

Developers will also be able to track the skeleton image of one or two people moving in view of the Kinect for the creation of gesture-driven applications.

Microsoft announced at the annual E3 video game show in Los Angeles that it plans to allow users of Kinect motion-sensing device to control live television feeds, search YouTube and play action games with voice commands.

Users in the US will be able to access live TV programs via Xbox starting next year. At present Microsoft offers live TV services in Britain, France and Australia.

People continue hacking Microsoft’s motion controlling device Kinect to adapt it to different systems. This time it was PlayStation 3. Shantanu Goel posted a video footage where he claims to have developed a code which allows a Kinect to be used to control a PS3.

Microsoft has sold 10 million Kinect accessories and 10 million Kinect supported games. Since Kinect’s launch last November Microsoft has sold five times more Xbox 360 Kinect bundles than Sony's PS3 Move.

Overall, Kinect sold 8 million units in 2010 and apparently took the Guinness World Record for the process for the fastest-selling consumer electronics device.

That's more that the 3m iPads Apple shifted in the first 80 days after its April release.

Microsoft will release a Kinect for Windows SDK "starter kit" this spring according to the announcement made by the company. The kit will be launched "to make it simpler for the academic research and enthusiast communities to create rich natural user interfaces" using the motion-sensing device.

In light of heavy hacks practiced with the Kinect game controller Microsoft is preparing an official release of drivers and a Kinect SDK for Windows machines so that users could have genuine software for using the device with PCs.

The controller was hacked late last year and adapted to run both on Windows and Mac OS X, with video footage released of the device controlling Windows 7.

At the Consumer Electronics Show earlier this month Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer stated that the company would announce the official PC support for Kinect "in the right time".

A developer Theo Watson has managed to hack the Kinect hardware for the Xbox 360 to run it on a MacBook Pro running Mac OS X. Previously the same thing was made for a Windows 7 PC.

While the Kinect on OS X doesn’t work the same way as it did on Windows 7, where a user had complete control over its motors and all, still it is a significant breakthrough that has great prospects for future Mac OS X machines use.

Microsoft has unveiled its demo Project Natal at E3 in Los Angeles at Cirque du Soleil. The Redmond company announced the name of the controller free gaming device: "Kinect for Xbox 360". At the presentation the company staged enactments of how games would be played. Those included a track and field tournament, a driving simulation in which passengers rock their bodies to toss the car into cartwheels, and a Star Wars game with enhanced control of a Jedi knight - which drew cheers.

Microsoft describes the technology this way: