Make your own software for this baby

Unlocking the toy box

The official Kinect software development kit is due out later this Spring, and Microsoft has pledged it will allow users to use Kinect features that hackers have so far been denied.

The Microsoft Research website reveals the SDK will work on computers running Windows 7 and allow users to access the sensor's microphone array complete with voice recognition, as well as perform skeletal tracking on two players. Both of these features have previously been inaccessible to hobbyist developers, so we can't wait to see what Kinect hacks come from this new SDK.

Kinect for Windows SDK beta

Coming later this spring, the Kinect for Windows SDK is a programming toolkit that will enable researchers and enthusiasts easy access to the capabilities offered by the Microsoft Kinect device connected to computers running Microsoft Windows 7.

With this SDK, you’ll be able to take advantage of:

• The latest advances in audio processing, which include a four-element microphone array with sophisticated acoustic noise a and echo cancellation for crystal clear audio.
• Sound source localization for beamforming, which enables the determination of a sound’s spatial location, enhancing reliability when integrated with the Microsoft speech recognition API.
• Depth data, which provides the distance of an object from the Kinect camera, as well as the raw audio and image data, which together open up opportunities for creating richer natural user interface experiences.
• Highly performant and robust skeletal tracking capabilities for determining the body positions of one or two persons moving within the Kinect field of view.
• Documentation for the APIs and a description of the SDK architecture.
• Sample code that demonstrates how to use the functionality in the SDK.

This SDK is intended for non-commercial use to enable experimentation in the world of natural user interface experiences, with new state-of-the-art features planned for future updates.