Microsoft has announced at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) show in Las Vegas, and on its website, that Kinect, the gaming system that allows people to interact with the action without having to hold a wand, will be bundled with Windows starting February 1. What’s still uncertain, however, is what exactly this will mean.
The way it works now is, if someone wants to play a Kinect game, they buy an XBox system and a sensor device which they hook it up to their television, then stand back and start playing. Thus, the system is made up of a console, which holds all the electronics and games, and the sensor device. The sensor device is made of cameras with opto-electric sensors that have been programmed to pick out human body parts and track them. This information is then sent to the console which adds it to the mix of the game, resulting in the interaction that is the draw of Kinect games.
So, how would this all work with Windows?
Microsoft isn’t saying, but from reading the fine print on its site, it’s pretty clear that what will happen is that users that wish to do so, will be able to download Kinect software onto their computer, in which case, it would replace the XBox. To play games on the system, a user would still have to purchase the sensor device though, as a single computer cam would not work.
But, there is something else new here too. On the site, Microsoft encourages visitors to download the Software Development Kit (SDK) a term well known to those who build apps for the iPhone or iPad. So, what this means is, Microsoft is encouraging users to develop not just new games, but applications that can be used in other ways. Like say, a system to serve as an intruder alarm system. This all becomes clear when buried among the other noise at the CES, was the announcement of the opening of the Microsoft Store, which is where users who create new apps for Microsoft enabled devices will peddle their apps to users of such equipment, which will of course, include the few Smartphones running Windows instead of Google’s Android.
The software available for download will work with Windows 7, and of course Windows 8 when it comes out sometime next year. Microsoft has made it clear that it intends to create a uniformity among its products in much the same way Apple has done. Thus, Windows 8 (as previewed also at CES) will look very much like Windows on a Smartphone, and or notepad devices. This should make it easy for developers to create apps that will run on any Windows enabled device, which when combined with the remarkable Kinect device, should provide a lot of options over the next few years.