14 DAY TRIAL // Today, true to a promise made on January 9th
, Microsoft made available for download the final flavor of its Kinect for Windows Software Development Kit.
Officially announced during the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, the development tools arrive in addition to commercially available hardware.
Kinect for Windows was launched in no less that twelve countries today, offering companies the possibility to start deploying the solutions built on it.
Microsoft’s Kinect for Windows hardware goes for a suggested retail price of $249, but there will also be a special academic pricing of $149 for Qualified Educational Users.
The release of Kinect for Windows was the result of a common effort from Microsoft’s research, speech, and Xbox NUI teams, and the final product reflects that.
The product can be deployed with confidence within companies, Microsoft notes, adding that it will continue offering support for it and making it a better product than it already is.
“As I mentioned in an earlier blog post, without many years of intense R&D efforts, including research investments of hundreds of millions of dollars, and deep partnership between our research teams, software teams, hardware teams, manufacturing teams, and games studios, Kinect simply wouldn’t exist,” Craig Eisler, general manager, Kinect for Windows, explains.
“Shipping Kinect for Windows was another cross-Microsoft effort: not only did the hardware and software teams work closely together to create an integrated solution, but our support, manufacturing, supply chain, reverse logistics, and account teams have all been working hard to prepare for today’s launch.”
Craig Eisler also explains that Microsoft is planning the release of two to three updates per year for the SDK and runtime. The next release is already under development.
“We are continuing to invest in programs like our Testing and Adoption Program and the Kinect Accelerator, and will work to create new programs in the future to help support our developer and partner ecosystem,” he notes.
Future enhancements to the product will arrive based on the feedback received from the developer community and business customers.
The Kinect for Windows SDK 1.0 is available for download from Softpedia via this link.