Kinect has effectively been dead in the water since Microsoft stopped bundling it with every Xbox One, but now the product is officially dead, with the Alex Kipman, creator of the Kinect, and Matthew Lapsen, GM of Xbox Devices Marketing confirming that production had ceased in an interview with Co.Design.
The peripheral was already on the way out, as the Xbox One’s evolving software gradually siphoned off the processing power reserved for Kinect and handed it over to developers, before last year’s Xbox One S shipped without the dedicated Kinect port on the back of the device. At the time, you could get a free adapter to let you keep using Kinect via USB, but as the Xbox One X is about to be released, the offer is no longer part of Microsoft’s plans.
The great irony of all of this is that the same kinds of biometric data and 3D scanning is about to debut in Apple’s iPhone X, albeit in a massively miniaturised form. The technology is not dead at Microsoft, even though Kinect as a product is no more. An evolved form of Kinect’s technology is also at the heart of Microsoft’s augmented reality headset Hololens, and the team behind Kinect have gone on to develop the Cortana voice assistant, the biometric ID systems built into Windows and more.
Source: On.Design
ron_mcphatty
Quick, get one on eBay, it’ll be a priceless relic by next year! I wonder if they’re planning to attempt VR next generation, the hololense looks incredible but I can’t see it working for the masses. I do hope VR takes off on consoles, I know Nintendo have said they’re not doing it but I keep looking at that Switch VR mock up and can’t help but think it’d be a wonderful trick. And I had another play with PSVR last weekend, a few minutes of Dirt
Stefan L
Microsoft have just released a VR platform, actually, called Windows Mixed Reality. It’s something that could potentially be added to Xbox One X – the original is just no powerful enough – and has the benefit of having the cameras built into the headset for tracking the controllers.
Avenger
It was inevitable given the lack of support and its role as ball and chain to the XB1. Good to know the R&D was useful though.
camdaz
I haven’t really kept abreast of kinect but it doesn’t seem that long ago that it was at the centre of Microsoft’s gaming world. How quick things change.
Starman
Fortunately they listened and accepted very few wanted it.
TSBonyman
Kinect-kinesis killed.