Kinect for Windows. SDK confirmed

Almost weekly round here at Ubelly Towers we muse over the latest Kinect ‘hack’ and ponder uses for the system beyond gaming. Whilst Kinect gaming is fun (to watch and play), we can talk for hours about uses for this technology outside of the XBox environment.

This week, Microsoft have announced that a non-commercial Kinect for Windows Software Development Kit (SDK) and that it will be made available this Spring. Yay.

What does that mean?

The magic that makes Kinect work is currently locked away inside the XBox. Previous hacks that we’ve seen have intercepted the signal from the Kinect hardware but without Microsoft’s software, translating that into useful information has only been possible by developers writing their own software. This SDK gives hobbyists better access to the motion-sensing and voice recognition technology inside Kinect and also to the software that allows them to properly interpret those signals.

In the words of Craig Mundie (Microsoft Chief Research and Strategy Officer) who made the announcement, ‘we think we’re going to see a huge explosion in interest’ and I couldn’t agree more. The huge investment that Microsoft has already made in Natural User Interfaces, coupled with the creativity and passion of the academic and research communities is surely going to produce some wonderful experiences with this technology.

We’ve discussed here at Ubelly Towers many sporting applications such as the analysis of your golf swing or cricketing (bowling and batting) and the world of sports physiotherapy. In those situations, Kinect could provide detailed analysis and potentially do away with Golf Pro?

There are medical applications, where Kinect could provide surgeons control over instruments they’re not allowed to touch in sterile environments or allowing doctors a simpler interface for browsing scans of the human body.

Here’s one of my favourites to date: