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Kinect for Windows now available
- wvenable 15y agoI still don't understand; why is Kinect for Windows $249 while Kinect for XBox $149? Doesn't the Kinect for XBox actually work in Windows?
- rhplus 15y agoFrom their blog: "The ability to sell Kinect for Xbox 360 at its current price point is in large part subsidized by consumers buying a number of Kinect games, subscribing to Xbox LIVE, and making other transactions associated with the Xbox 360 ecosystem. In addition, the Kinect for Xbox 360 was built for and tested with the Xbox 360 console only, which is why it is not licensed for general commercial use, supported or under warranty when used on any other platform." The hardware is also a little more advanced, supporting "near mode" detection. http://blogs.msdn.com/b/kinectforwindows/ http://blogs.msdn.com/b/kinectforwindows/
- glimcat 15y agoI suppose it remains to be seen whether they'll sell as well at $249 and as a separate device vs. $149 and readily available as $100 and only needing one for both purposes. I suspect they'll sell, but at reduced volume and excluding major potential demographics. They might do better to work towards building such an ecosystem for Windows, particularly given the wide range of uses and high level of interest which were demonstrated. "Warranty support" has not been high on the consumer values list in the existing ecosystem, so much as "cheap accessible cameras" and "does cool stuff."
- wvenable 15y agoAs a hobbyist, I'm not sure that's worth the extra $100. I've been considering picking one up to play with.
- barista 15y agokinect is highly discounted by most retailers around the year. Though the xbox kinect sells for 149, many places sell it for 99. So you can wait for a few months and hopefully this will get cheaper too
- Qworg 15y agoDepending on what you're going to use it for, I would recommend just sticking with the XBox Kinect and either of the major other options: OpenKinect (http://openkinect.org/ http://openkinect.org/) or OpenNI (http://www.openni.org/ http://www.openni.org/)
- tom_b 15y agoI want one to play with and I'm a Linux OS user. I should have picked one up at $99 over the holidays. The comments from the msdn blog are interesting in indicating the lifetime customer value of XBox users with a Kinect to Microsoft. The extra cost might be worth it, if the documentation and examples were much more than simple library descriptions. I am thinking more of being able to grok the hardware/software driver interface than the higher-level calls. Any fellow HN'ers with early insight to how good the Microsoft Kinect SDK extras look?
- recoiledsnake 15y agoStill available for $99 at some places. E.g. http://www.buy.com/prod/xbox-360-kinect-sensor-holiday-bundle-2011-includes-gunstringer-kinect/225285025.html http://www.buy.com/prod/xbox-360-kinect-sensor-holiday-bundl...
- Aaronontheweb 15y agoIf you're worried about the cost of Windows and the development tools as part of that, if you're in a startup then it's likely that you qualify for BizSpark where you can get full Windows licenses and copies of Visual Studio for free: http://bit.ly/uBC9Ol http://bit.ly/uBC9Ol
- Qworg 15y agoYou can't use the Kinect SDK with Linux. If you're interested in learning more about the driver interface, OpenKinect is FOSS and runs on any platform: http://openkinect.org http://openkinect.org
- drKarl 15y agoI have a Kinect for XBox and I have tried some of the non official drivers, and it works. I don't know why there is such a think as a Kinect for Windows, the hardware should be the same, using the API Microsoft just released...
- barista 15y agoHardware is not the same. http://blogs.msdn.com/b/kinectforwindows/ http://blogs.msdn.com/b/kinectforwindows/ kinect for windows has better hardware which can see objects much nearer to it.
- brudgers 15y agoI.e. it is designed operate at the distance you sit from your computer monitor.
- Qworg 15y agoActually, the hardware is likely unchanged. The original "Kinect for XBox" can see that close, but with error. The biggest changes are in the firmware and the Microsoft Kinect SDK. The SDK itself didn't allow for any data that close.
- ComputerGuru 15y agoI would argue that you don't need different hardware to see "closer" to the sensors - probably just recalibrated hardware and altered focusing systems dressed up as new hardware to justify the price increase. Would be interested in an iFixIt teardown for confirmation, though.
- gallamine 15y agoI suspect the lens that diverges the laser projected pattern would need to be adjusted in order to get the proper sized pattern at the optimal distance. i.e. The lens would need to be more diverging.
- ComputerGuru 15y agoRight. Altered, reconfigured, calibrated differently, etc. but not actually different hardware. It's a different lens, not a different lens system, for instance.
- Qworg 15y agoNo, I think the hardware is exactly the same. There's a firmware update.
- dandelany 15y agoThis is discussed on the Kinect blog here: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/kinectforwindows/archive/2012/01/20/near-mode-what-it-is-and-isn-t.aspx http://blogs.msdn.com/b/kinectforwindows/archive/2012/01/20/... "As I mentioned in the original post, the Kinect for Windows device has new firmware which enables the depth camera to see objects as close as 50 centimeters in front of the device without losing accuracy or precision... The lenses on the Kinect for Windows sensor are the same as the Kinect for Xbox 360 sensor, so near mode does not change the field of view as some people have been speculating."
- smhinsey 15y agoI can't wait to see what sorts of apps come out of this. I have a dual 30'' display set up, and I'd love to be able to have some sort of "cursor follows my eyes" type of feature so that I can quickly move around all of that screen real estate.
- r00fus 15y agoMy question is: why don't apps already exist? It's not like they haven't had a beta for months... why lose the momentum of a launch and not have some killer apps they can demo? I must be missing something, because I don't see anything it will do for me out of the box.
- smhinsey 15y agoI wonder if that isn't a hint at some flaw with the SDK or hardware. Usually MS is very gung ho about having early adopters through all of their various betas and early access plans and previews and etc.
- Qworg 15y agoNear mode lacks skeleton tracking - I'd expect more after the skeleton tracking is fixed.
- brador 15y agoThis would be ridiculously awesome together with blink=click.
- deleted 15y ago[deleted]
- smhinsey 15y agoHah, that does sound interesting, but the last thing I need is a repetitive strain injury in my eye muscles.
- Qworg 15y ago
- Flemlord 15y agoI think the real question is whether this will be integrated into Windows 8. Sounds like an amazing opportunity for MS to leapfrog iOS.
- iamandrus 15y agoI'd imagine it'll include the core SDKs and an option for OEMs to include built-in Kinect support (like Asus is doing).
- uvTwitch 15y agoWell, I'm disappointed that I won't be able to make my dream app without buying new hardware: a gesture recognizer that allows me to close programs by giving them the finger.