Kinect: One Year On 'The Kinect Effect' Extends to Businesses and More

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Richard Walker

As Kinect's first year anniversary comes around later this month, Microsoft has been celebrating the variety of other uses for the motion device outside of gaming, with various companies and businesses downloading the Kinect SDK for creative applications within healthcare, education, art and so on.

Dubbed the 'Kinect Effect', Microsoft will be extending the service with the Kinect for Windows commercial program launching early next year, giving businesses the tools and the opportunity to develop applications to improve their operations. Companies such as Toyota, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt and Razorfish have already joined a pilot program for Kinect for Windows.

Kinect has also been used to help autistic children during therapy sessions, utilised to aid the rehabilitation of stroke victims and also put to use in operating theatres in Spain to help doctors navigate MRI and CAT scans. It's hoped that the Kinect for Windows program will led itself to other applications like these. Kinect for Windows rolls out in early 2012. For more on 'The Kinect Effect', click here.

Comments
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  • Haha nice, at work im going to walk in the meeting room and my co workers are gonna be playing hole in the wall.
  • It's nice to see it's going beyond it's initials uses.... but I still prefer playing games with a controller in my hands.
  • Ive got good use out of Kinect and im happy with it as a different way to play games now and then but its cool to see the other ways its being used. All very impressive stuff.
  • i find it weird that now, besides from Dance Central 1 & 2, all i use the Kinect for is the voice recognition stuff. That shit is cool, so basically all my Kinect is is a Wii Speak with a camera on it haha
  • Very cool news
  • I studcy Digital art and Technology at uni in the UK and I get to work on this sort of stuff for part of my course. Can seriously say this tech will be a stepping stone to the future it is really impressive stuff.
  • I saw Kinect on sale for a $100 and considered getting it. Than I looked at the game catalog and it's been such a let down. The integration with none Kinect games (Harry Potter, Forza, soon Halo and Mass Effect) hasn't been that good. The stand alone games haven't been that enjoyable either, mostly shovelware. Hopefully putting the device to other uses will lengthen its lifespan and maybe draw attention to the poor games released.
  • Interesting article link. I had no idea it was being used in such a broad array of applications.
  • Wow, didn't know Kinect was being used in so many ways, and here I was thinking Microsoft had wasted money developing it in the first place. Kinda ironic that it's more useful for things that are not gaming than it ever was for gaming.
  • #9 has got in spot on. I don't think that that is what M$ intended to happen, but if it means selling more units, then they will continue to support it for a variety of uses.
  • Microsoft has announced this intention a long time ago. Do a little research. Underestimating Microsoft's vision is quite ludacris. If you think this whole thing is about shipping a few more Xboxes and a couple of games, stop, think, and do a little research. They have more than bankers and accountants working for them. Turns out, some of those guys are kinda smart. This stuff is really exciting. The MIT folks that designed the interface in Minority Report were quite serious about it. But its probably better to whine about Kinect Sports than listen to them.
  • I love my kinect i like that is new and new games to play ya most of the games r odd and for little kids but its fun playing them if i had more people that had a kinect then fuck cod and gears i would be playing kinect games all day :D i think its better for people 2 play the kinect cuz its a good solo and good with the family over all people dont get it because of the price and because it means u have to get off your fat ass lol
  • Reminds me of a story on our local news. University of Warwick were making some space rovers, and found that the connect vision was perfect, and better than the NASA thousand £ cameras . KINECT IN SSSSPPPPPAAAAACCCCEEEEE!
  • I never thought Kinect was a good app for games. Wii done it many years ago. Other uses I do agre with though and that'sthe direction they should be headed.
  • This is extremely impressive, but then again, what did people expect from a system with Steven Hawking and Steven Spielberg on board
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