Kinect Tech Comes To PC, Officially
Natal-inside.
Published: 19:45, 03/01/2011 by Alex C [nofi].
36Primesense, the guys that licensed the tech behind Kinect to Microsoft, has announced that they’re collaborating with Asus to create a PC-targeted motion control camera.
The controller, which doesn’t look a million miles away from Kinect, will be called Wavi Xtion and will be announced formally at the CES show in Las Vegas next week.
“The WAVI Xtion media center for the PC leverages ultra-wide band wireless link and PrimeSense 3D sensing solution to provide controller-free interaction experiences in the living room,” says the press release. “Users can browse multimedia content, access the Internet and social networks, and enjoy full body interaction in a more user-friendly and natural living room experience.”
Primsense will also announce Xtion PRO, a development kit for the hardware which will allow developers to create games for the Wavi Xtion, which will be available next month.
Let us know when it plays Dance Central.
Source: press release, via VG247.
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03/01/2011 at 20:12
Member since: Jan 2010
lol so the pc will now also get the ps2 eye toy hahahahaha
03/01/2011 at 20:36
Member since: Jun 2009
come on, the kinect camera is much more advanced than the eyetoy and even the pseye.
MS are being innovative for using this tech, i think in the long run it will become standard. Although limited use in games, the potential for apps and media centre usage is awesome. Imagine it with 3DTV – proper minority report style.
Sony clearly believed that controller-less interfaces were very limited for games, hence combining the two for move, but the next PS4 will prob have a kinect style camera and the move controller.
03/01/2011 at 22:34
Member since: Dec 2010
it’s not innovative to use tech made by other people that have been testing this tech for years, people keep getting it wrong saying that the Kinect is a revolutionary piece of kit, it isn’t, but it is evolutionary, yes the Kinect camera is more advanced in certain ways, but it’s still basically doing the same job and creating the same experience. it still has a lower fps than the pseye which for gaming, was a bad choice by MS if they had thrown in a 60fps camera in there they would have had a much better device.
04/01/2011 at 01:04
Member since: Forever
I’ve been researching Kinect hacking for a piece I’m doing. It’s so obviously & absolutely massively more capable than the EyeToy & PSEye, it’s almost an alien tech in comparison to them.
04/01/2011 at 09:00
Member since: Apr 2010
and yet it still under performs in relation to the PS Eye and Move. I’m not being fanboyish here, I’m just looking at my own personal experience of the two.
03/01/2011 at 20:17
Member since: Aug 2009
Why?
03/01/2011 at 21:08
Member since: May 2009
Actually this make more sense then Kinect does. The Kinect / Xtion is impressive hardware actually, but it’s use for games are pretty limited to certain games. But for PC / HTPC, I’m pretty sure some crazy apps will appear for it.
03/01/2011 at 20:21
Member since: Aug 2008
Pic 4 – Sunny Wu made me spit my drink out. It’s the little things, y’know?
04/01/2011 at 01:00
Member since: Jul 2009
The fact that they’ve edited out the giraffe he’s obviously “stroking”. Made me smile too.
03/01/2011 at 20:33
Member since: May 2009
Is this device associated with MS? I thought MS owns the kinect patent, I didn’t know they leased the rights. If so it makes sense why MS didn’t release a PC kinect when kinect got hacked to run on PC. I also hope the PC version needs alot less space, I can’t imagine clearing out 6 feet for my PC. oh well, at least the quality of amateur cam porn is about to improve.
03/01/2011 at 20:33
Member since: Dec 2009
Now this is where it could get really interesting. With an official product being sold for PC software developers will be quick to jump on the bandwagon bringing 360/Kinect-like games to the pc , but with more processing power at their disposal controller-free-control could get very interesting indeed.
03/01/2011 at 20:41
Member since: Aug 2009
That is officially the worst product name EVER.
03/01/2011 at 20:44
Member since: Dec 2009
The Wavy Action? :)
03/01/2011 at 21:17
Member since: May 2009
The name of the camera, is just Xtion, the WAVI are 5 ghz wireless receiver/transmitter. The camera plugs into a WAVI, and another WAVI plugs into the PC. It’s also being reported that theres only infrared cameras inside, so its not as accurate as kinect.
03/01/2011 at 22:36
Member since: Dec 2010
Not as accurate…Oh dear…
04/01/2011 at 00:39
Member since: Dec 2009
Considering Primesense are the people who designed the tech in the first place i think it has potential to be at least as accurate as Kinect. I confess i don’t know enough to say for sure but i’m looking forward to finding out more detailed specs.
03/01/2011 at 20:58
Member since: Jan 2010
yeah but its still clearly ps2 eye toy technology advanced obviously as its 10 years later.im not a fan boy for sony but SONY got there 1st lmao ;s
03/01/2011 at 21:16
Member since: Apr 2010
Someone usually has “got there first”, its about as similar to the ps2 eyetoy as the ps2 is to the PS3 though.
03/01/2011 at 21:17
Member since: Apr 2009
you know nothing about the technology behind it clearly
03/01/2011 at 22:38
Member since: Dec 2010
and neither do you by the looks of it…
03/01/2011 at 21:14
Member since: Apr 2010
What I don’t understand is why MS didn’t licence the Kinect for use on Windows as well, they have missed a large market for a much more sensible use of the impressive tech.
04/01/2011 at 01:10
Member since: Forever
As I mentioned above, there is some seriously impressive uses of hacked Kinects, it’s a massive oversight by Microsoft, and arguable just as big a market.
Another thing I don’t get is, the game devs must have messed about & researched in a similar way to the hackers are now – if they’d have released vids of the type I’ve seen, then Kinect wouldn’t have had nowhere nearly so much derision poured on it by the core gamer and wouldn’t have the uphill battle it does amongst the core… It would have hinted at a really cool future just like Richard Marks’ vids did for PSMove, without ever having to design that research into a game
03/01/2011 at 22:16
Member since: Aug 2009
Took my a few times to read that … marketing fail
03/01/2011 at 23:30
Member since: Jan 2010
I really can’t see computer games enthusiasts willing to use this.