Articles about Kinect

Today, Microsoft reported record Black Friday week Xbox console sales -- 960,000 units. That works out to roughly one per minute, assuming six-and-a-half days of sales (reduced for Thanksgiving Day). It's a phenomenal achievement for an aging console and demonstrates how Kinect and lower-entry cost 4GB models extend Xbox vitality as a platform. Microsoft describes the milestone as the "biggest week of sales in Xbox history".

However, the sales per minute is much higher for Black Friday -- well, presumably. Microsoft says that 800,000 consoles sold in one 24-hour period, which I assume means day after Thanksgiving. That works out to 555.5555 Xboxes per minute. Consumers also snatched up 750,000 Kinect sensors -- that's standalone and bundled -- during the whole week.

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This year I revive my annual "give thanks" series -- what Microsoft has to be grateful for this Thanksgiving Day. In 2006, "employee bloggers" topped the list and "Google's woes", following a year-long collapse of the search giant's shares, in 2008. What about 2011?

I present the list in reverse order of importance. No. 1 is the last item and the reason for which Microsoft should give most thanks this year (so far).

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There's going to be a controller. Enough people inquired about the obvious that Craig Eisler, Kinect for Windows general manager, felt obliged to answer.

"We’ve been asked whether there will also be new Kinect hardware especially for Windows", he blogs today. "The answer is yes; building on the existing Kinect for Xbox 360 device, we have optimized certain hardware components and made firmware adjustments which better enable PC-centric scenarios".

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Microsoft announced on Tuesday that it had acquired video search company VideoSurf, which in September launched its technology for identifying video content based upon images captured with a mobile phone camera. Microsoft says it will add this technology into the Xbox 360 ecosystem, improving the search and discovery of entertainment content on Xbox Live.

To bring live television to Xbox Live, Microsoft has partnered with more than 40 different content providers in over 20 countries, including television networks and multi-service operators. Microsoft on Tuesday said the acquisition of VideoSurf will help these companies integrate their content into Kinect voice search.

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Somehow I missed yesterday's rather startling Microsoft exec move, but, whoa, it's a doosey. Yusuf Mehdi, the sole-surviving executive of stature from the Online Services Business' better days, is stepping aside and taking up a new marketing role over Xbox -- and, whoa, is that a good thing. It's helluva loss for OSB, but Mehdi wasn't going up the executive ladder there anyway. His loyalty is worth something, and there's chance to distinguish himself at Entertainment and Devices the way he did during OSB's brief period of profitability (back when it was called something else).

Mehdi was one of Microsoft's young, rising stars during the early Noughties and he worked as part of the leadership that turned MSN from Money Pit to Black Gold. I beta tested the online service before its debut with Windows 95. Microsoft launched MSN in response to online services AOL and CompuServe, while failing to see the more important World Wide Web rising above them. The MSN group lost money from day one and continued to do so into the new century. There was a joke among some Microsoft employees that MSN was on the "red side of campus", because it was perennially unprofitable.

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Editor: Ryan DeJonghe responded to our request for Kinect stories in celebration of the technology's one-year anniversary. Would you like to get fit? He has a group of 1,400 using Xbox 360 and Kinect to do just that.

I’ve always been a fan of video games and technology. Anything that would marry the two would be icing on the cake. Starting out on the NES, I hooked up every accessory available, from Broderbund’s U-Force controller to the Miracle Piano Teaching System. So naturally, when Microsoft announced they were releasing a product that would be able to track your entire body, I was first in line.

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Microsoft's innovative natural user interface Kinect turns one year old today, and it looks like there's a celebration of some sort brewing.

Kinect began as an Xbox 360 peripheral, but it grew into an official Windows peripheral six months ago with the first Kinect for Windows beta.

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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.

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I'm a big fan of Kinect and Microsoft using the body as the command line. The most natural user interface is you. But selling the long-term benefits, beyond gaming, is tricky. Leading into the controller's November 4 first-year anniversary, Microsoft promotes the "Kinect Effect". It's brilliant, and forward-looking, marketing that shows Kinect's huge potential outside gaming.

I've praised Kinect before, for example: regarding a viral video where a toddler dances inside Microsoft Store and debut of Kinect Fun Labs.

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Two days before Christmas last year I posted "Talking about Microsoft Store", which contrasted the differences between people shopping there and the Apple shop a few doors down in Fashion Valley Mall, San Diego. Apple Store was busier, and the crowd younger, with lots of individuals and couples. I observed about the other shop: "Microsoft Store is where families meet".

So it is with great intrigue and curiosity that I watch Microsoft's new "It's a great time to be a family" marketing campaign unfold. I'm loving it. The first commercials clearly show the benefits of using Microsoft stuff and put them in context of what matters most to the majority: Family. Core family values also are central to the Microsoft lifestyle. And when I express "core family values" the meaning simply is "one another" -- not some moral conservative or liberal moral agenda.

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In video gaming, there have been two separate types of interfaces that have dominated…for mobile gaming, it's been touchscreens, and on consoles it's been 3D motion control.

Following the explosive popularity of Nintendo's Wii, the current generation of consoles all embraced air interfaces where the user becomes the controller. PlayStation Move, and especially the brilliant Microsoft Kinect take free-space motion control to new levels. And following the explosive popularity of video gaming on the iPod touch, iPad, and iPhone, many game companies have shifted to a "mobile first" attitude.

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Sometimes the most brilliant moments in marketing are the simplest ideas. In the video above, a youngster dance, dance, dances before Xbox 360. Microsoft smartly uses Kinect to connect with customers. The action takes place at Microsoft Store Bellevue, Wash.

I've seen the same kind of youngster dancing here in San Diego at Microsoft Store Fashion Valley. The tikes, middle schoolers or tweens will sometimes draw sizable crowds of gawkers. The store here opened one year ago this month, and it was the first where the public could play with Kinect, nearly five months before its official release. Microsoft placed the Xbox 360-Kinect setup right in the front window, where anyone walking by can see the action.

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Fulfilling its promises from earlier this year, Microsoft on Thursday released the Kinect SDK Beta for Windows, giving creative interface designers legitimate access to the famous 3D motion controller without the need for a hacked third-party driver.

Along with the software development kit, Microsoft has published a series of "quickstarts" to help aspiring developers get a jump on installing and using the Kinect Sensor, setting up a Kinect development environment in Visual Studio, as well as setting up and working with code samples. These samples require Microsoft's DirectX SDK (June 2010 or later) and the current runtime for DirectX 9, as well as Microsoft Speech Platform Runitme 10.2 and SDK 10.2.

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What else could Microsoft be up to today? The company is holding a big Kinect press event, starting at 12:30 p.m. EDT that will go on for -- get this -- four-and-a-half hours!

According to a blog post by Microsoft's Nic Fillingham the Kinect event will be broadcast live from Channel 9. "The broadcast will be in IIS smooth streaming 720P so please ensure you have Silverlight installed and for the full high definition experience select 'Fullscreen' from within the player," he writes. So no Adobe Flash is required, but you'll still need Microsoft's alternative.

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If there was an award for most unpopular CEO, Steve Ballmer just might win it. There have been increasing calls to off his head -- to remove him and bring in anybody else. "Psst, Ms. Cleaning Lady, how would you like to run a software company?" But Microsoft's chief executive deserves more credit than he gets. The company closes its fiscal year in 17 days, with brighter future than any year since Apple announced iPhone in January 2007. Ballmer and his executive team delivered one of Microsoft's best years ever -- from a strategic perspective.

Sure, Microsoft is still running behind in mobile, and its cloud strategy is too tied to legacy products Office and Windows. But in many other respects, Microsoft delivered lots of promise, and the credit largely belongs to Ballmer and his larger executive team. One year ago, as fiscal 2010's close approached, I posted: "I have lost in faith in Steve Ballmer's leadership." In April came my turnabout post: "Steve Ballmer has restored my confidence in his leadership."

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