The launch of the Xbox One on Friday was the biggest product release for Microsoft this week, but a smaller preview launch occurred yesterday as well. Microsoft has announced that thousands of developer units of its Kinect for Windows v2 device were being sent out to testers on Friday.
The Kinect for Windows blog stated that the preview includes a pre-release version of the Kinect for Windows v2 sensor, along with a beta version of the SDK. Developers who have signed up for the program will get ongoing SDK updates and a final version of the Kinect for Windows v2 sensor when it launches sometime in 2014.
The next iteration of the sensor will have the main features of the Kinect hardware that are included in every Xbox One console, which likely means that it will look similar to the Kinect device shown above, but without the Xbox logo. Microsoft hopes that the new Kinect for Windows hardware and SDK will encourage developers to look beyond gaming applications for the product as the first Windows version did. It added:
Microsoft believes that the opportunities for revolutionizing computing experiences will be even greater with this new sensor. The benefits will raise the bar and accelerate the development of NUI applications across multiple industries, from retail and manufacturing to healthcare, education, communications, and more.
There"s no word yet on what the price will be for the Kinect for Windows v2 hardware when it goes public in 2014.
Source: Microsoft | Image via Microsoft