Kinect for Windows SDK now available

Microsoft has released an official Windows SDK for Kinect, allowing "researchers, developers and enthusiasts" the ability to create new Kinect hacks.

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Microsoft promised an official Windows SDK for Kinect, and today it delivers.

A free SDK, including drivers, APIs, device interfaces, and resource materials is now available as a 100MB download on the Microsoft Research website. The company expects to see "another wave of creativity from academic researchers, developers and enthusiasts... in fields far beyond gaming and entertainment" using the tools. There are already thousands of videos of Kinect hacks on YouTube.

Microsoft calls today's release a "beta," noting that they're still working on a SDK for use commercially. Also, Microsoft notes that this release should "not be used to develop prototype applications with the intent of porting those applications to the Xbox 360 console. There are numerous architectural, performance, and behavioral differences between Xbox 360 and Windows. These differences affect how the Kinect technology is implemented for Windows 7." So, today's release may not spark a new era of homebrew Kinect games... but it is the next step of the robot takeover of our planet.

Andrew Yoon was previously a games journalist creating content at Shacknews.

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From The Chatty
  • reply
    June 16, 2011 12:45 PM

    Andrew Yoon posted a new article, Kinect for Windows SDK now available.

    Microsoft has released an official Windows SDK for Kinect, allowing "researchers, developers and enthusiasts" the ability to create new Kinect hacks.

    • reply
      June 16, 2011 12:46 PM

      who is andrew yoon

      • reply
        June 16, 2011 12:48 PM

        New staffer. He actually posted in the chatty a few times.

        • reply
          June 16, 2011 12:52 PM

          And said he wanted to do a ShackBattle.

          • reply
            June 16, 2011 1:05 PM

            Yeah, and I will. Once I'm done with all these E3 previews. They're cracking the whip!

            • reply
              June 16, 2011 1:10 PM

              Alice has a wicked wrist, I hear.

            • reply
              June 16, 2011 1:19 PM

              Just don't come to the Arma2 Shackbattle. Brian Leahy did that and then quit Shacknews a month later!

    • reply
      June 16, 2011 12:47 PM

      I cannot wait to see what crazy shit is going to come out of this. The hospital usage in surgical rooms just blows my mind.

    • reply
      June 16, 2011 12:50 PM

      Does this support XNA?

      • reply
        June 16, 2011 1:12 PM

        XNA on windows, Yes.

        XNA on Xbox or Win7Phone, No.

        • reply
          June 16, 2011 1:57 PM

          Holly shit really, damn that's freaking cool I can use this thing, thanks :)

    • reply
      June 16, 2011 12:52 PM

      So ME3 will support Kinect on the PC then.

    • reply
      June 16, 2011 12:56 PM

      Looks like its just for C++ Win dev, well you can always make a wrapper for XNA if you really wanted to.

      System specs interesting:

      System requirements
      Hardware

      Kinect for Xbox 360 sensor
      Computer with a dual-core, 2.66-GHz or faster processor
      Windows 7–compatible graphics card that supports DirectX® 9.0c capabilities
      2-GB RAM (4-GB RAM recommended)
      Software

      Windows 7 (x86 or x64)
      Visual Studio 2010 Express (or other 2010 edition)
      Microsoft .NET Framework 4.0
      For additional requirements for samples, see the Readme file

      Btw, thanks for the news.

      • reply
        June 16, 2011 1:18 PM

        it comes with c# samples, so it's either compiled for c# as well, or they've provided the wrapper.

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