UPDATED 20:02 EDT / FEBRUARY 21 2011

Microsoft Embraces Kinect Hacks, Makes the Best of It

Microsoft announced today that in a few months’ time will release a software development kit for programmers to design software for Windows 7 PCs that can exploit Kinect. This is how Microsoft responds to previous successful attempts dating a few months ago from programmers that created Kinect applications for PC, available on online video websites,  without Microsoft’s approval. Kinect hackers managed to increase optical recognition capability by ‘drawing buttons’ on a sheet of paper. Such innovative techniques open doors in various domain, from video gaming to clothing and so on.

The only issue that is not very clear at the moment is how Microsoft will benefit financially from Kinect applications from the PC given that Microsoft doesn’t traditionally collect a royalty for independently created applications.

The gaming industry is gaining sound revenues at the moment and innovation is the main prerequisite for competitors to stay on top of the game. At the MWC 2011 event, Sony Ericsson revealed Xperia Play, an interesting combination of a smartphone and a mini games console that will be released later this year on Android operating system.

Another star of the MWC event was LG Optimus 3D that was announced to be ‘the first Android 3D phone to ship with an impressive array of glassless 3D games.’ For this device, LG teamed up with Gameloft offering oftware sliders to control the intensity of the 3D effect, similar to the hardware slider on the Nintendo 3DS.


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