Microsoft’s motion-sensing, voice-recognising Kinect accessory recently got tweaked for Windows PCs and put on the market, although the device is currently pretty basic in terms of what it can do – it’s only really suited to developers right now.
To remedy that, Microsoft has been working away at a big old software update, which it has now explained will launch this May. Version 1.5 will bring a plethora of new features for end users and developers alike, most notably a more accurate 10-point motion sensing system.
The 10-point tracking will make Kinect for PC much more user friendly when sitting down at a PC and using it. Thanks to the improved accuracy with close range subjects, Kinect for PC should be able to detect things like smiling and blinking.
The voice control aspect is due a bump in functionality too, with new language support added. Kinect for PC will soon be able to recognise French, Spanish, Italian and Japanese. The added language support has been added with a larger global rollout in mind; Microsoft confirmed it will be taking Kinect for PC to Hong Kong, South Korea and Taiwan in May, and the following countries in June: Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Denmark, Finland, India, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, South Africa, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Arab Emirates.
Kinect for PC is in its infancy right now, and is purely for developers to create apps that use motion tracking and voice recognition along with Windows PCs. When developers have come up with the goods, we could see a future that involves touchscreen Windows 8 computers combined with gesture and voice control using Kinect.
If Microsoft and its developers come up trumps, we could have computers that don’t even need to be touched in the future – how awesome would that be?
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