Microsoft has finally released a development kit for the Kinect for Windows. Currently the Kinect is a camera/motion/mic device that is use to play certain XBOX 360 games and get around the XBOX360 interface. Well Microsoft and starting to acknowledge the expansion of said product and has introduced a dev kit for people wanting to make programs in Windows specifically for the Kinect to be attached to a PC with Windows 7 on it. The beta release of the free Kinect software development kit, or SDK, could fuel the grassroots Kinect applications that have until now been considered hacks as Microsoft did not have any formal development software for this product on the PC side. Microsoft says it?s also working on a version of the SDK for commercial software programs. Microsoft isn?t giving a timeframe for the release of a commercial version of the SDK, and it isn?t talking about how the sensor could ultimately be integrated into its own PC products. However, it?s not difficult to envision the sensor being used to control the new Windows 8 interface, or working in conjunction with Skype for video conferencing, after Microsoft?s acquisition of Skype is complete.
