Naturally the first thing that follows is lightsabers.
Microsoft's Kinect sparked the imagination of geeks everywhere when it was released, but the lack of an official driver and interface restricted its use to those smart few who could crack and hack it into some semblance of working order.
Luckily for everyone else, Microsoft has just released the beta Kinect SDK, or Software Development Kit, meaning everyone with a cool concept and average programming skills will be able to plug their Kinect into their PC and let their creative juices flow.
Microsoft have given the Kinect community a helping hand by releasing instructional videos, or 'Quickstarts', on everything from using depth data to tracking a skeleton; even plugging in the sensor gets its own helpful video.
As boasted in a press release, "The SDK code is designed to encourage academic researchers, developers and enthusiasts to create new experiences for natural user interface technology beyond gaming and entertainment, such as healthcare, education and science. The new experiences can include depth sensing, human motion tracking, and voice and object recognition using Kinect technology on Windows 7."
Also noteworthy is that the beta Kinect SDK is for non-commercial uses only, and that "Microsoft intends to release a commercial version of the SDK at a later date; details will be released when they are available."
The SDK is available to download at a specially-crafted microsite, with the lightsaber project available to view here. If you're an enterprising Atomican and create something cool with the SDK, let us know in the comments or via email!
Just keep it G-rated ;)
Issue: 137 | June, 2012