Change channels on your TV and open documents on your PC with a wave of your hands. That vision of the future, reminiscent of the movie Minority Report, is in the process of becoming reality as the technology behind Microsoft’s Kinect moves into products beyond the Xbox 360 game console.
Israeli company PrimeSense, the developer of the chip that controls motion sensing in the Kinect, is licensing the chip for use in other devices and is the releasing the code under an open license.
‘Next-Generation User Interface Device’
The company announced last week that its Immersive Natural Interaction technology will be embedded in WAVI Xtion, a “next-generation user interface device” developed by Taiwan-based computer maker ASUS to add PC functionality to TVs. A commercial version is expected to be released during the second quarter, and then rolled out worldwide.
With the controller-free interaction that the new technology makes possible, multimedia content, access to the Internet and social networks, and other PC-based interactions on the TV, as well as TV-based controls, can be conducted entirely through body movements.
The two companies will also introduce Xtion PRO so third-party software developers can incorporate gesture-based interaction into their software products. The tools will be available next month, including an API, and the resulting products will be available through an upcoming Xtion online store.
PrimeSense CEO Inon Beracha said the technology is “a new paradigm” that indicates how all consumer electronics products “will eventually be naturally controlled and operated.”
The expansion of the technology comes as Kinect sales continue to boom. Launched by Microsoft in November for its Xbox 360 platform, more than 2.5 million units were sold in the Kinect’s first month, and more than eight million have been shipped to retailers. At the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas last week, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said the company will…