14 DAY TRIAL // Microsoft has yet to confirm officially that Kinect is coming to Windows 8, but I have a pretty good feeling about this, especially since a company representative told me last year that the software giant was hard at work porting the NUI technology beyond Xbox.
The E3 2011 demos that the Redmond company presented, especially those featuring amazing voice integration examples made possible by the Kinect, Xbox 360 and Bing, are nothing but excellent previews of what would be possible through the integration of Windows 8 and Kinect.
There should be little doubt that Microsoft is taking Windows to the next level with the successor of Windows 7, especially after the D9 and Computex demonstrations, which put the platform’s natural user interface evolution at center-stage.
But what about additional NUI input mechanisms, on top of multi-touch? Kinect would certainly make it possible for users to control their Windows 8 devices using voice and gestures.
I’m of course not necessarily talking about Windows 8 PCs, laptops, netbooks, etc. While voice and gestures would indeed serve in certain cases, especially around accessibility, it’s my opinion that a Windows 8 and Kinect marriage would best serve customers in entertainment scenarios, gaming included.
Just imagine what would be possible with a Windows 8 Media Center home entertainment system, or a Windows 8 Internet TV, both sporting Kinect integration, and the added NUI benefits of voice, as well as integration with additional technologies, including Bing.
Have a look at the video embedded below. Microsoft demoed it at E2, and it’s easy to see that Xbox is a mere "accessory," all the magic comes from Kinect.
The platform, in this case Xbox 360, could easily be swapped for something else, the full Windows 8 with its Windows Media Center component, an embedded flavor of Windows 8 designed to power ARM TVs, a Windows 8 gaming device replicating the Xbox 360 and Kinect experience, just to name a few examples.
As long as Kinect would be present, I’m sure that developers will find a way to build amazing experiences on top of Windows 8. Of course, they’d require Windows 8 Kinect APIs, a Windows 8 Kinect SDK, code samples, libraries, etc.
But maybe, just maybe, the NUI experiences we’re seeing today with Kinect and Xbox 360 will find their way to Windows 8. But I do have to underline that this is only speculation, and Microsoft might decide that Kinect for Windows 8 just doesn’t make sense.