Microsoft has been showing off demos of Kinect Fusion over the past several months, and the company will finally release the new feature as an update to the Kinect for Windows software development kit on Monday.
The release date was revealed Saturday by Bob Heddle, the director for Kinect for Windows at Microsoft, during a presentation at the Engadget Expand conference. The Kinect Fusion update will allow users of Kinect for Windows to generate 3D models of objects and environments after scanning them with the device"s camera.
Along with Kinect Fusion, the new SDK update will add OpenCV and MATLAB code samples to help developers make new apps for the device, along with new ways for users to interact with Kinect for Windows. Microsoft says:
The interactions include push-to-press buttons, grip-to-pan capabilities, and support for smart ways to accommodate multiple users and two-person interactions. These new tools are based on thousands of hours of research, development, and testing with a broad and diverse group of people. We wanted to save businesses and developers hours of development time while making it easier for them to create gesture-based experiences that are highly consistent from application to application and utterly simple for end users.
Source: Kinect for Windows blog | Image via Microsoft