Xbox 360: Microsoft Enabling Kinect Technology Use for Commercial Apps (VIDEO)
Starting next year, Microsoft will enable any and all companies to develop applications using a software development kit version of its Kinect technology.
Microsoft said that companies who wish to create commercial applications for Windows can do so through Kinect in 2012. No official release date for the Kinect SDK has been released thus far.
The Kinect technology will be used to create different uses of its motion sensor technology for PC's.
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A non-commercial version of the Kinect SDK has been available since its November launch. Academics and Kinect enthusiasts have been able to create various apps with Kinect thus far, but they have refrained from selling them for profit.
So far, a group of MIT's Media Lab students have used Kinect to allow web users to surf the net with hand motion controls.
Microsoft's Kinect device, which currently works with the XBox 360 video game console, is an amazing piece of technology. It allows users to control on-screen actions through the use of their hand gestures.
Once the device became ever more popular, several tech enthusiasts took advantage and developed different uses for it.
Two hundred companies have signed on to be a part of Microsoft's pilot program for this motion technology. Some of those companies include Toyota and Razorfish.
Kinect could possibly become a very important aspect of Microsoft's business after the SDK launch. Anoop Gupta, a Microsoft Research scientist, told CNET that Kinect "could be a meaningful business" for his company.
Gupta also believes that Kinect provides "both the hardware and the software opportunity" for developers.
The Kinect SDK will be compatible with the Window 7 operating system. No word yet on whether it will work with Microsoft's upcoming Windows 8 OS.
The footage below shows off current and potential uses for the Kinect device:
