Kinect For Windows Hardware Will Be Different Than Kinect For Xbox 360, Allowing Users To Use At Closer Range, As Close As 50 Centimeters

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It’s not a surprise to see Microsoft announces that it will release Kinect for Windows in early 2012, but it’s a surprise to hear that Kinect for Windows will come with newer hardware and firmware.  According to LATimes’ article “Kinect is coming to Windows, but are TVs next?” — Unlike Kinect for Xbox 360, Kinect for Windows users will be able to use Kinect at close range (i.e., as close as 50 centimeters).  So, it seems Kinect for Windows is more flexible than Kinect for Xbox 360, because many computer users do actually stay nearer to their monitors.  Kinect for Windows will work with Windows 7 and Windows 8.

I think Kinect for Windows is great, but it might not be a must have!  Perhaps, I might be shortsighted on this matter, but I think Windows users who stay only inches away from their monitors might not think that it’s a good idea to wave their hands around to communicate with Kinect.  The plus side though that Kinect can recognize voices, therefore it might still be a good idea to use Kinect at close range through the use of Kinect voice recognition.  This makes me so wish to see Microsoft comes out something similar to Apple’s Siri and couples such technology with Kinect or builds it into Kinect so users like us can finally have a personal assistant while using our Windows.

Source:  http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/technology/2011/11/kinect-for-windows-and-soon-tvs.html

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