In my opinion it would be far better suited to the field of robotics. They didn't even provide us with an SDK to use it. In my opinion this has the ability to completely change the way we live our life but Microsoft is hoarding the technology for the Xbox which is just a drop in the bucket compared to it's full potential. I would love to see what would happen if a company like Honda or even Boston Dynamics got a hold of the technology.

Because that is where they felt they could make the money from it?

MS = company.
Company = want to make money.

From there the reasoning should be simple...

As cool as the tech is, I'd imagine company such as Honda, Toyota or even MIT would have access to far more developed and cutting-edge tech.

But I could be wrong.

Also, from what I hear, Kinect is 90% smoke and mirrors anyway.

Hold your horses reindeer!*


* corrected for seasonality

Quote: Original post by SteveDeFacto
In my opinion it would be far better suited to the field of robotics. They didn't even provide us with an SDK to use it. In my opinion this has the ability to completely change the way we live our life but Microsoft is hoarding the technology for the Xbox which is just a drop in the bucket compared to it's full potential. I would love to see what would happen if a company like Honda or even Boston Dynamics got a hold of the technology.

I'm sure they are looking at it for every day use. The applications for digitizing your home are tremendous for sure as well as for virtual touch screens.

It's probably going to pop up soon anyway. There's a couple videos of MIT guys using hacks to use the kinect to produce virtual touch screens on non-touch surfaces.

here's a couple:

http://www.ismashphone.com/2010/12/build-minority-report-interface-multitouch-kinect.html

Kinect is just 1 of many 3D capable cameras coming to the market. They use to cost 30,000+ but with recent advances they have drastically dropped in price. I'm sure there will be consumer level 3D webcams soon available to all. Maybe Microsoft didn't want to compete in that market? and felt safer on their proprietary platform?

Microsoft doesn't own all the patents on the 3D webcam tech, nothing stopping another company from releasing an PSEye+3D webcam combo on the PS3 if Sony oks it. I suspect they will if the Kinect takes off..

-ddn

Quote: Original post by SteveDeFacto
Microsoft is hoarding the technology for the Xbox which is just a drop in the bucket compared to it's full potential. I would love to see what would happen if a company like Honda or even Boston Dynamics got a hold of the technology.

What? I hope you are just a kid who is too dependent on 'Internet Time', and who also has not bothered to stay up with current news.


The hardware has been out for about ONE MONTH. The things you mentioned generally take YEARS before adoption.

Anybody can buy the hardware (assuming they can find it in stock), it is very cheap, and an estimated 5 million units will be sold before the end of its second month. That is quite rapid for hardware. I don't see how that merits a description of "hoarding".



As for it being limited to games, I hope this claim is just from not reading general news sites.

Various news sources have claimed that Kinect support will be in Windows "as early as 2011". Developing the game SDK with close feedback to your partners is something they can afford to iterate on. Releasing it to the public at large is something they likely want to take the time to ensure it is done right. I'd much rather wait a few months to get a well-written SDK rather than have them release a slipshod public beta. When the CTP version is released next year you can be certain they will have made an effort to keep all their potential customers happy.

In the mean time, various developers have written unofficial Windows drivers. MS isn't threatening them, or suing them to oblivion. Instead they have been publicly encouraging. That doesn't sound like "hoarding" to me, either.




News sources have hinted at licensing agreements for other platforms and technologies, which obviously take months to negotiate before they are finalized and announced to the public. It would be foolish to assume this is not happening.



Please don't jump to the conclusions that the company is "hoarding" the technology, or that they are refusing to allow access to other developers, or that they are hiding it away from other industries. The claims are obviously false.

I have already seen some videos of kinect being used with the hacked drivers as a surprisingly effective motion capture system.

Quote: Original post by frob

Quote: Original post by SteveDeFacto
Microsoft is hoarding the technology for the Xbox which is just a drop in the bucket compared to it's full potential. I would love to see what would happen if a company like Honda or even Boston Dynamics got a hold of the technology.

What? I hope you are just a kid who is too dependent on 'Internet Time', and who also has not bothered to stay up with current news.


The hardware has been out for about ONE MONTH. The things you mentioned generally take YEARS before adoption.

Anybody can buy the hardware (assuming they can find it in stock), it is very cheap, and an estimated 5 million units will be sold before the end of its second month. That is quite rapid for hardware. I don't see how that merits a description of "hoarding".



As for it being limited to games, I hope this claim is just from not reading general news sites.

Various news sources have claimed that Kinect support will be in Windows "as early as 2011". Developing the game SDK with close feedback to your partners is something they can afford to iterate on. Releasing it to the public at large is something they likely want to take the time to ensure it is done right. I'd much rather wait a few months to get a well-written SDK rather than have them release a slipshod public beta. When the CTP version is released next year you can be certain they will have made an effort to keep all their potential customers happy.

In the mean time, various developers have written unofficial Windows drivers. MS isn't threatening them, or suing them to oblivion. Instead they have been publicly encouraging. That doesn't sound like "hoarding" to me, either.




News sources have hinted at licensing agreements for other platforms and technologies, which obviously take months to negotiate before they are finalized and announced to the public. It would be foolish to assume this is not happening.



Please don't jump to the conclusions that the company is "hoarding" the technology, or that they are refusing to allow access to other developers, or that they are hiding it away from other industries. The claims are obviously false.

Actually the only reason Microsoft is not doing anything about OpenKinect is simply because they can't. There is no law against writing drivers for hardware. There is absolutely nothing Microsoft. They can't write any type of EULA for hardware...