The Register®

Original URL: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/02/22/kinect_sdk/

Microsoft gives Kinect SDK to 'academics, enthusiasts'

Non-commercial 'starter kit'

By Rik Myslewski in San Francisco

Posted in Games, 22nd February 2011 01:07 GMT

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Microsoft has announced that it will release a Kinect [1] for Windows SDK "starter kit" this spring "to make it simpler for the academic research and enthusiast communities to create rich natural user interfaces" using the motion-sensing device.

"Microsoft's investments in natural user interfaces are vital to our long-term vision of creating computers that are intuitive to use and able to do far more for us," said Microsoft’s chief research and strategy officer Craig Mundie when announcing [2] the non-commercial SDK on Monday.

Microsoft says that the non-commercial SDK will "give users access to deep Kinect system information such as audio, system application-programming interfaces, and direct control of the Kinect sensor."

Kinect has already been hacked to work with Mac OS X [3] and with Windows PCs [4], and Microsoft has already said that an official Windows version was on its way – a stance reiterated in Monday's announcement, which said that Noting that a commercial version will be available "at a later date."

Exactly when that might be is anyone's guess – and at last month's Consumer Electronics Show, CEO Steve Ballmer said [5] only that the Kinect for Windows SDK would be released "in the right time." ®