A patent filed last year by Microsoft has recently come to light. It’s the most diabolical patent I’ve ever read about. It’s for a “content presentation system” that makes use of a device with an RGB and depth camera – yes, in other words: Kinect. Basically, the system is designed to allow content providers (for example: Netflix or other digital providers) to assess who is watching their content, and then “regulate the presentation of content on a per-user-view basis.”

According to the filing: “Content is distributed to consuming devices, such as televisions, set-top boxes and digital displays, with an associated license option on the number of individual consumers or viewers allowed to consume the content. The limitation may comprise a number of user views, a number of user views over time, a number of simultaneous user views, views tied to user identities, views limited to user age or any variation or combination thereof, all tied to the number of actual content consumers allowed to view the content.”

Basically, if Microsoft gets this application going (and I doubt they will find a willing audience so it’s unlikely) then Kinect could block you from watching certain movies under certain circumstances. Perhaps you hired a film, but the license you rented only allows for two people to watch the film simultaneously; you have three friends over, Kinect counts four people in the room and therefore blocks you from viewing the movie you paid for. Yep, looks like Randy Marsh was on to something when he bought that Blockbusters.

Source: Kotaku

You know, I really love Kinect; not as a gaming peripheral, but for all the other cool stuff people are using it for. Microsoft has just demoed a shopping trolley that sports a tablet-like screen and a Kinect sensor right where you’d normally stick a screaming kid. Given the choice, I think I’d take the screen and Kinect.

It is very much a concept because, well, I can’t see many shops opting to spend this much money on shopping trolleys. It is, however, a totally neat concept because it’s slathered in science-fiction awesomesauce.

The trolley is motorised, meaning it’ll dutifully follow you around the shop like some well-meaning astromech droid. Instead of R2 like chirps and squeaks, it’ll actually be able to talk to you and mark stuff off your shopping list the moment you place things in the trolley. It’ll also add the contents of your trolley to your store account, thereby negating the necessity for cash checkout desks and all that revolting queuing ordinarily associated with a visit to the grocery store. Hit the jump for all of this in action.

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A PC version of Kinect is hitting, well, the PC this week on 01 February. Along with that new PC version comes an upgraded camera that allows Kinect to focus on people sitting closer to it; probably a good idea considering people sit way closer to their PCs than they do their TVs.

According to website The Daily, Microsoft is working with hardware manufacturers to integrate Kinect sensors into laptops. The Daily claims to have actually seen these laptops, which were manufactured by Asus. According the report, the Asus laptops were running Windows 8 and they had “an array of small sensors stretching over the top of the screen where the webcam would normally be”. Then, on the bottom of the laptop screen is “what appear to be LEDs”.

There’s no official word from Microsoft about any of this, so for now take it with a pinch of salt. Would it make sense for Microsoft to get hardware manufacturers to integrate Kinect into all of their laptops? Yes, it absolutely would. You might look like a total jackass sitting in an airport flailing your arms about in front of your laptop, but there’s more to Kinect than motion sensing; such as voice and facial recognition.

Source: The Daily
Via: Eurogamer

Fun fact: right this very moment, the Consumer Electronics Show is happening in Las Vegas. The CES attracts all of the major hardware companies including Microsoft and Sony, so expect quite a bit of game related news coming out of the desert over the next few days.

Microsoft recently gave their keynote presentation at CES 2012 during which they provided a solid date for the launch of Kinect on Microsoft Windows PCs. That date is 01 February 2012 – it’s unclear whether this is an international or USA-only release date.

No price has been confirmed as yet, however online retailer Amazon has the unit up for pre-order for $249.99 which is $100 more than Kinect for Xbox 360. This is likely due to the beefed up camera in the Windows version, which makes it possible to focus on users sitting closer to a PC.

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In case you’ve been living under a rock for the past few months, Microsoft is about to start official support for Kinect on Windows-based PCs. The Kinect for Windows program kicks off early next year and will bring with it a new model of the motion-sensing peripheral.

Speaking via the Kinect for Windows blog on the Microsoft Developer Network, general manager Craig Eisler announced that the new iteration of Kinect will feature minor hardware tweaks to make the unit more PC-friendly. Such adjustments include a shorter USB cable as well as a dongle for ease of connectivity. That’s all pretty boring; what’s really neat is that Kinect for Windows will feature a new firmware version that will allow the camera to focus on objects and users as close as 50cm away. This “Near Mode” is a damn sight (pun LOL!) better than Kinect for Xbox 360, which requires you to be at least two to three metres from the camera before it begins to function properly.

It looks like Microsoft is putting a lot of emphasis on Kinect for Windows. A full mentorship as well as development grants program has been set up in order to kick-start application development. The flip side of all of this is that it sounds as if you’ll need to pick up a Kinect for Windows sensor if you’re hoping to wave your arms around in front of your PC. It’s not exactly clear, but it seems like your dusty Xbox 360 Kinect controller won’t be able to just plug in and go once the official program hits Windows PCs. Bummer.

Source: MSDN
Via: Kotaku

A while back, we posted a story on TechCrunch’s unearthing of a Microsoft patent for something called NUAds – an advertising service that makes use of Kinect so that consumers can interact with whatever advert is in front of them.

Here is the official explanation video from Microsoft. It’s not intended for gamers like you and me, but rather for the companies that Microsoft is wooing with this NUAds proposal. It all looks fairly basic in implementation so far, with simple voice commands and hand gestures that allow you to Tweet a specific advert or vote in poles. It’s pretty dull to be honest, but just wait for some of the cleverer advertising types to get going with this.

It’s also worth noticing how badly this is sitting with gamers; as of right now this video has just over a hundred “Likes” to over four thousand “Dislikes”.

Via: Kotaku