With the launch earlier in February of the Kinect for Windows hardware along with the 1.0 version of the SDK, we are starting to see the first commercial products show up that use the Windows 7 version of Microsoft"s motion gesture device. This week, a third party developer released Kinect for Media Center, which allows the user to use hand gestures and voice commands to interact with the Media Center user interface in Windows 7.
The software, which is not officially released or endorsed by Microsoft, also allows hand gestures to control Media Center add-in services such as Netflix. In addition, Kinect for Media Center can be configured so that any audio that comes from the Media Center won"t trigger any of Kinect"s voice commands.
The Kinect for Media Center device is only designed to work for the Kinect for Windows hardware device. The FAQ page on the Kinect for Media Center web site says that while it could run on the Kinect for Xbox 360 hardware, there is no official support from the developer for such a set up.
You can check out a live video demo of Kinect for Media Center in the video above this post. The developer of the software is now selling it for $6.99 and is also taking donations.