Microsoft took its expansion of Kinect a step further Tuesday with plans from general manager Craig Eisler that a new Kinect controller was coming just for Windows. The system, so far called just Kinect for Windows, will have tuned hardware and software just for closer confines, including objects that can be fully recognized as close as 20 inches. A Near Mode in software will focus on apps that are designed just for upper-body tasks.
While it will work for home users, it will also get extra support for those who want to use it for work, giving them continuous updates for the body and speech tracking components as well as full support. Just this week, Microsoft started up its Kinect Accelerator project, an incubator with a $20,000 cash incentive intended to get ten companies creating new ideas that in turn might inspire others.
Kinect's paid Windows app support was already due to go live in early in 2012 and may be joined by the new hardware in a similar time window. There will be "more" coming at launch, Eisler said.
