Tell us your Xbox Kinect story

November 4 is the one-year anniversary of Kinect, which rapidly is evolving into more than a game controller and a huge present and future success for Microsoft. The technology also represents the company's profound push into natural user interfaces. Apple's Siri has buzz now, but it's from Redmond, Wash., not Cupertino, Calif., that the most inventive NUIs are coming -- and most likely will dramatically affect your life and anyone within your sphere of six degrees of separation.

But that's a future I'll expand on in a few paragraphs. For now, the present. Do you Kinect? If so, I'd like your story, whether it's about the technology for gaming or something else. Please share your story here or send email to joe at betanews dot com. I'll collect some stories here and post others separately, depending on writers' preferences.

In January, reader Robert Johnson asked: "Could Kinect be Microsoft's iPod?" He gave a developer's perspective on the technology two months after launch and long before Microsoft released the Kinect SDK for Windows. His story is a good starting point.

One of the reasons I'm so recently bullish about Microsoft -- and why you should be, too -- is recent investments in NUIs like Kinect. As I explained in February, Apple's success today traces back to four investments made in 2001 during a recession that sapped sales. Economic crisis seemingly is time to pull back, but historically companies that invest often reap rewards later. Here there's some irony. Apple's fortune soared during the current economic downturn from investments made during the last one. I see Microsoft NUI investments made over the last couple years in same ilk.

During his Consumer Electronics Show 2009 keynote, at the height of the econolypse, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer professd: "I believe that companies and industries that continue to pursue innovation during tough economic times will achieve a significant competitive advantage positioning themselves for growth far more effectively than companies that hold back." He's absolutely right. Microsoft's investments in cloud infrastructure and purchases of companies like Skype, for example, are sure to pay off in the future. But Kinect, and other NUI technogies, stand apart for their potential to dramatically change how we all interface with high-tech. The most natural user interface is you.

Microsoft is getting much better at user interfaces and user experience -- that is UX -- and Bill Buxton is one of the key influencers. Buxton, principal researcher at Microsoft Research, is one of the best hires of the Steve Ballmer decade. I encourage you to review the Buxton Collection for a sense of what he sees as delivering good UX and sense for where Microsoft is going with NUIs.

Science Fiction

Technology like Kinect is the stuff of science fiction. But that's not the only tale being told.

Microsoft's biggest competitive problem is fiction -- what competitor's might do. There are now rumors that Apple will add Siri to Apple TV and that it will be better than Kinect. It's really laughable, since they do different things (granted there is voice command overlap). But the rumors -- and don't take them too seriously -- are having impact.

Yesterday, Ali Muzaffar commented:

I do love the Kinect but it's days are numbered if all the Android and Apple powered smart tv's are really coming. MS needs to do something drastic here, the Xbox is already a great media hub, they really need to extend the abilities of the Xbox and Kinect interface to allow you to do more. Perhaps make the Kinect sensor smaller in the process.

Microsoft is doing more, as the "Kinect Effect" campaign and Windows SDK indicate.

Yesterday morning, Microsoft watcher Paul Thurrott picked up on the rumors spread by The New York Times Bits blog about Siri coming to Apple TV. (Who needs misinformed blog posts when the Grey Lady so effectively spreads rumors?) He writes: "Science fiction? I guess that's true if you ignore what Microsoft shipped a year ago".

I posted to Google+: "Apple doesn't copy, eh?" -- and the comments are worth a look. Fellow journalist Ian Betteridge makes the most important point:

Umm... you're all suggesting a feature which doesn't exist, on a product which doesn't exist, is a copy of something? Remember, these rumours originate with the same bunch of fantasists who insisted that Apple was going to be unveils a teardrop-shaped iPhone 5 with NFC and blah blah blah.

That's right, the science fiction here is Siri for Apple TV. But already Microsoft is competing against this amorphous thing. Surely, Apple rumors will be the ruin of us all!

Circling back, please share your Kinect story here in comments or by emailing joe at betanews dot com.