Kinect for Windows confirmed, SDK to arrive this March

Following the November launch of Kinect for X360, Microsoft has confirmed that they are going to release a Software Development Kit of Kinect in March for Windows 7, with initial software use being limited to non commercial purpose only. The Commercial version of the SDK that allows creation of rich Kinect based applications and games, would be released later at an unspecified date.

“Microsoft’s investments in natural user interfaces are vital to our long-term vision of creating computers that are intuitive to use and able to do far more for us,” said Craig Mundie, Microsoft’s chief research and strategy officer. “The fruits of these research investments are manifesting across many of our products, Kinect for Xbox 360 among them.”

The Windows SDK would be essentially released as a starter kit to “make it simpler for the academic research and enthusiast communities to create rich natural user interfaces using Kinect technology”. The SDK will further give users access to deep Kinect system information such as audio, system application-programming interfaces, and direct control of the Kinect sensor.

Microsoft hopes to encourage the “potential seen within Kinect’s core technology” and foster “creativity, experimentation, and new research directions” among academics and enthusiasts alike by the SDK’s release.

Microsoft Kinect has so far shipped more than 8 million Kinect units in 60 days for X360. With this launch of SDK, we could very well hope to see creative new Kinect Applications and games for PC.