Microsoft Releases Kinect for Windows SDK

[Lonesamurai]

Microsoft Releases Kinect for Windows SDK

The wait for voice command-enabled Excel spreadsheets is over.

US, June 16, 2011


No longer is Kinect on the PC reserved for ambitious hackers as Microsoft has officially made the Kinect for Windows Software Development Kit (SDK) beta available to download for free.

.NET developers fluent in C++, C#, or VB will have full access to the Kinect, including both cameras and the microphone. Since most are new to the peripheral, Microsoft has supplied over 100 pages of technical documentation to get you started.

Limitations to Windows Kinect are the same as on the Xbox 360: identification of up to six individuals or two full skeletons, and the required space to effectively utilize the peripheral. At this point, Microsoft doesn't intend to adapt the Kinect for their major programs, but instead are opening things up for developers to create whatever their right-sided brains could conjure up.

As of now, the SDK is available only for non-commercial application development, although a commercial version will eventually be released.