

Kinect for Windows now available - iamandrus
http://mashable.com/2012/02/01/kinect-windows/

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wvenable
I still don't understand; why is Kinect for Windows $249 while Kinect for XBox
$149? Doesn't the Kinect for XBox actually work in Windows?

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rhplus
From their blog: "The ability to sell Kinect for Xbox 360 at its current price
point is in large part subsidized by consumers buying a number of Kinect
games, subscribing to Xbox LIVE, and making other transactions associated with
the Xbox 360 ecosystem. In addition, the Kinect for Xbox 360 was built for and
tested with the Xbox 360 console only, which is why it is not licensed for
general commercial use, supported or under warranty when used on any other
platform."

The hardware is also a little more advanced, supporting "near mode" detection.

<http://blogs.msdn.com/b/kinectforwindows/>

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tom_b
I want one to play with and I'm a Linux OS user. I should have picked one up
at $99 over the holidays.

The comments from the msdn blog are interesting in indicating the lifetime
customer value of XBox users with a Kinect to Microsoft.

The extra cost might be worth it, if the documentation and examples were much
more than simple library descriptions. I am thinking more of being able to
grok the hardware/software driver interface than the higher-level calls.

Any fellow HN'ers with early insight to how good the Microsoft Kinect SDK
extras look?

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Aaronontheweb
If you're worried about the cost of Windows and the development tools as part
of that, if you're in a startup then it's likely that you qualify for BizSpark
where you can get full Windows licenses and copies of Visual Studio for free:
<http://bit.ly/uBC9Ol>

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ComputerGuru
I would argue that you don't need different hardware to see "closer" to the
sensors - probably just recalibrated hardware and altered focusing systems
dressed up as new hardware to justify the price increase. Would be interested
in an iFixIt teardown for confirmation, though.

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gallamine
I suspect the lens that diverges the laser projected pattern would need to be
adjusted in order to get the proper sized pattern at the optimal distance.
i.e. The lens would need to be more diverging.

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ComputerGuru
Right. Altered, reconfigured, calibrated differently, etc. but not actually
different hardware. It's a different lens, not a different lens system, for
instance.

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Qworg
No, I think the hardware is exactly the same. There's a firmware update.

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smhinsey
I can't wait to see what sorts of apps come out of this. I have a dual 30''
display set up, and I'd love to be able to have some sort of "cursor follows
my eyes" type of feature so that I can quickly move around all of that screen
real estate.

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brador
This would be ridiculously awesome together with blink=click.

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smhinsey
Hah, that does sound interesting, but the last thing I need is a repetitive
strain injury in my eye muscles.

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uvTwitch
Well, I'm disappointed that I won't be able to make my dream app without
buying new hardware: a gesture recognizer that allows me to close programs by
giving them the finger.

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Flemlord
I think the real question is whether this will be integrated into Windows 8.
Sounds like an amazing opportunity for MS to leapfrog iOS.

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iamandrus
I'd imagine it'll include the core SDKs and an option for OEMs to include
built-in Kinect support (like Asus is doing).

