Microsoft XBox One Kinect Will Not Work On Windows PCs

symbolset writes "Ars is reporting that Microsoft XBox One Kinect will not work on Windows PCs. It uses a proprietary connector and an adaptor will not be available. If you want Kinect for your PC you will need to buy a 'Kinect for Windows' product. Although the Kinect 1.0 for XBox 360 also had a proprietary connector it came with a USB adaptor for compatibility with older versions of the 360 that lacked the new proprietary port and PC compatibility was quickly hacked up by third parties."

Re:Microsoft seem determined

[Missing.Matter]

The people doing the most impressive/innovative things with the Kinect are research institutions and startups. Sensors like the original Kinect used to cost in excess of $5000 - $10000. I've seen some as high as $70,000 which are not as nice as the Kinect and don't offer the same developer resources and community support. At $199 they were a complete steal. Sensors like the Kinect 2 simply do not exist today, and several that are slated for release (which still don't match its capabilities) still run in excess of a grand.

With that in mind, the $399 Kinect for Windows is still a complete steal. It's *the* most innovative and cheapest sensor for robotics, my field, period. The time of flight capabilities they added to the Kinect 2 are unheard of for under $6000. The resolution is unheard of for any price. I will be the first one in line to buy a PC compatible kinect for my robotics research, and I'll be smiling all the way home TYVM.

I just bought a Kinect for PC

[Mike Blakemore]

There are some differences between the PC version and the Xbox version. The PC version has "upgraded" firmware that allows for gesture recognition at closer proximities. Also, its about $100 more than the Xbox Kinect.

I'm now using it for speech and gesture recognition in Touch Control System (TCS): a 3D game engine built for controlling electronics.
http://hyperplaneinteractive.com/blog/tcs-in-depth/ [hyperplane...active.com]

Re:Microsoft seem determined

[icebike]

That only makes sense if buying the Xbox Only version was cheap and easy. For sake of argument, lets say it is.

It will take http://pinouts.ru/ [pinouts.ru] maybe a week and a half to post the specs, and some enterprising Chinese company will make a converter.
Or you could bread-board your own.

Re:I just bought a Kinect for PC

[PPH]

Just thinking out loud: The Xbox Kinect might be more (or less) than a Windows Kinect with an oddball connecter. Its possible that some of the Windows Kinect firmware functions have been moved into the Xbox and the Xbox Kinect lacks those functions. And can't be upgraded.

Sort of like the old Winmodems.

Re:Microsoft seem determined

[guruevi]

Except that Apple doesn't have proprietary connectors. The problem is that MS is aping what Apple is doing way after it has become clear that it was a huge success. Apple also has lots of failures, Microsoft is just very risk averse and they don't want to take any risk in order to innovate.

Re:Microsoft seem determined

[bondsbw]

With Kinect2 built into every XBOne ot will make it easier for developers to add the technology to their games but I have strong doubts that it will make motion-control any more /useful/.

Like GPS and accelerometers in mobile devices, if developers have confidence that more/all users will have access to a certain technology, it's more likely they will try to come up with useful ideas.

Also, don't forget that the Kinect 2 is vastly improved over the Kinect in terms of depth resolution and AI capabilities. That alone could give developers what they need to take their games and other software to the next level.