MS Kinect Technology Legacy lives on ... Introducing Project Kinect for Azure

[BRiT]

During Satya Nadella’s Build keynote, he introduced the world to one such tool that may sound a little familiar: Project Kinect for Azure. I wanted to take a little more time to expand upon this project, what it means and the role it will play in enabling developers to apply AI over the real world in profound new ways.

What Satya described is a key advance in the evolution of the intelligent edge; the ability for devices to perceive the people, places and things around them. One of the things that makes Project Kinect for Azure unique and compelling is the combination of our category-defining depth-sensor with our Azure AI services that, together, will enable developers to make the intelligent edge more perceptive than ever before.

...
With HoloLens, we saw incredible results when we took some of the magic of Kinect and applied it in a mixed reality context. The current version of HoloLens uses the third generation of Kinect depth-sensing technology to enable it to place holograms in the real world. With HoloLens we have a device that understands people and environments, takes input in the form of gaze, gestures and voice, and provides output in the form of 3D holograms and immersive spatial sound. With Project Kinect for Azure, the fourth generation of Kinect now integrates with our intelligent cloud and intelligent edge platform, extending that same innovation opportunity to our developer community.

Read more about the technical breakthroughs at the blog article @ https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/introducing-project-kinect-azure-alex-kipman

 

[Theeoo]

You mean Kinect wasn't just for casual dancing games?

 

[eastmen]

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/introducing-project-kinect-azure-alex-kipman/?published=t

Kinect is coming back as Kinect for azure and will be in the next gen HoloLens. It seems like they have made a lot of improvements to it. I kinda wish they would introduce a new Kinect for the xbox using this sensor.

• Highest number of pixels (megapixel resolution 1024x1024)
• Highest Figure of Merit (highest modulation frequency and modulation contrast resulting in low power consumption with overall system power of 225-950mw)
• Automatic per pixel gain selection enabling large dynamic range allowing near and far objects to be captured cleanly
• Global shutter allowing for improved performance in sunlight
• Multiphase depth calculation method enables robust accuracy even in the presence of chip, laser and power supply variation.
• Low peak current operation even at high frequency lowers the cost of modules

 

[Theeoo]

I do not put the legendary Star Wars Dancing Game on the same level as the others by the way.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

Not sure this belongs in console forum. Any chance it'll result in Kinect in neXtBox? Seems a VR/MR tech for that forum.

 

[BRiT]

Not sure this belongs in console forum. Any chance it'll result in Kinect in neXtBox? Seems a VR/MR tech for that forum.

Propably not another Kinect sensor, more likely used on commercial HaloLens that would be usable on PC and Consoles. Though there were console tech threads saying Kinect Technology was a failure, so wanted to show the tech is not a failure as it continues to live on in new products.

( Anyways ... moved thread into the AR/VR forum with an expiring redirect from the console section. )

 

[eastmen]

Propably not another Kinect sensor, more likely used on commercial HaloLens that would be usable on PC and Consoles. Though there were console tech threads saying Kinect Technology was a failure, so wanted to show the tech is not a failure as it continues to live on in new products.

( Anyways ... moved thread into the AR/VR forum with an expiring redirect from the console section. )

my title was catchier !

This can come back to consoles. IF MS is gong to do VR for the xbox this can be either a sensor on the helmets for inside out tracking or can be used as an external camera. It can even provide hand tracking. The biggest thing is its size to me. This looks like a 5th of the size of the current Kinect 2.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

Having it as a VR component isn't the same as bringing it back to consoles. The capacity of console use would be as it originally was, for motion input. I expect that possibility is passed, although if the tech becomes cheap enough, it might reappear as a peripheral or something. Kinect 2 was just too expensive, but Kinect has its fans and its uses and could be a great differentiator.

 

[cheapchips]

Cost of their new sensor is key question. If it's cheap enough then WMR2 headsets could have an external kinect for full body tracking. That'd be interesting, I think.

 

[milk]

It's like MS is trying to create the ultimate Overhyped technology.
It's got kinect, holo lens and cloud in there. Can't they fit SHAPE audio and DataMoveEngines somewhere in there? Maybe a sprinkle of Neural Network TM can do the trick?

 

[function]

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/introducing-project-kinect-azure-alex-kipman/?published=t

Kinect is coming back as Kinect for azure and will be in the next gen HoloLens. It seems like they have made a lot of improvements to it. I kinda wish they would introduce a new Kinect for the xbox using this sensor.

Less than 1W peak and better than ever.

I was banging on about cloud powered AI for Kinect games four years ago. Hopefully Kinect can come back to consoles as a much smaller and much cheaper device that's easier to mount on top of a tv. Allow it to be sold as a cheap peripheral that can be justified for a few good games, like Dual Shock or WiiMote+.

Kinect should never have been a forced purchase, a huge chunk of a high purchase price, a reason for large system reserves in games that didn't use it, and a justification for trashing the dash.

I pray for Kinect's return to gaming, but only for those that actually want it.

 

[eastmen]

Less than 1W peak and better than ever.

I was banging on about cloud powered AI for Kinect games four years ago. Hopefully Kinect can come back to consoles as a much smaller and much cheaper device that's easier to mount on top of a tv. Allow it to be sold as a cheap peripheral that can be justified for a few good games, like Dual Shock or WiiMote+.

Kinect should never have been a forced purchase, a huge chunk of a high purchase price, a reason for large system reserves in games that didn't use it, and a justification for trashing the dash.

I pray for Kinect's return to gaming, but only for those that actually want it.

I dunno , intergrating it was a smart idea but the $100 price difference against the ps4 and weaker hardware was the mistake. If this new Kinect would add a $10-20 to an xbox next sku it could be worth it . But they need tech to really take advantage of it. The face stuff in star citizen in say a halo launch game would relaly make people want it. The interesting thing is that MS has all the tech they need to build a stellar vr system. They already have the hand and body tracking as shown with Kinect 2.0 so 3.0 should be eve nbetter and its now smaller. I really hope we get some VR news from ms at e3

 

[Shifty Geezer]

Less than 1W peak and better than ever.

I was banging on about cloud powered AI for Kinect games four years ago.

How does cloud power integrate with Kinect for betterness? Machine learning to improve detection and tracking?

 

[Grall]

I was banging on about cloud powered AI for Kinect games four years ago.

Cloud-driven games was pie in the sky from day 1. Potentially way too much latency for anything approaching realtime graphics; if someone is on a cellular data connection they could have 500ms ping quite easily. I've had 1500ms at times when I've used my phone tethered. It could maybe work reliably for a non-twitch, point-and-click adventure game, but what such game would need cloud-driven AI?

If this new Kinect would add a $10-20 to an xbox next sku it could be worth it .

It can't need such huge areas of space as previous kinects. Lots of people simply don't have a giant living room that allows for holding a square dancing event. What was the minimum distance for kinect 2? I don't recall exactly, other than way too much still for my very modest accomodations.

 

[cheapchips]

It can't need such huge areas of space as previous kinects. Lots of people simply don't have a giant living room that allows for holding a square dancing event. What was the minimum distance for kinect 2? I don't recall exactly, other than way too much still for my very modest accomodations.

I couldn't find any specifc details on minimum distance for Kinect Azure. It does have a dedicated close up laser. View through the lens in the build conference bit (1:33):

 

[eastmen]

Cloud-driven games was pie in the sky from day 1. Potentially way too much latency for anything approaching realtime graphics; if someone is on a cellular data connection they could have 500ms ping quite easily. I've had 1500ms at times when I've used my phone tethered. It could maybe work reliably for a non-twitch, point-and-click adventure game, but what such game would need cloud-driven AI?


It can't need such huge areas of space as previous kinects. Lots of people simply don't have a giant living room that allows for holding a square dancing event. What was the minimum distance for kinect 2? I don't recall exactly, other than way too much still for my very modest accomodations.

For what though ? For dance games ? sure your going to need room , who stands in place and dances ? For VR ? Well yea you need to move around no different for the non seated vr experiances on psvr . For hand tracking for VR ? well you don't need much room for that. Built into the headsets you need even less room .

 

[Shifty Geezer]

There was an issue with how close you could be to the TV. Kinect needed you to be far enough back, which was too far for many folk. A VR headset doesn't, but of course if it's needing cameras, VR has the same problem to overcome.

 

[BRiT]

Kinect 2 improved on that, you only had to be around 4.5 feet from the tv set. https://support.xbox.com/en-US/xbox-one/accessories/setup-play-space

 

[Shifty Geezer]

I think it mostly comes down to game design. The Kinect games needed space for what they were (bouncing around hitting virtual objects). Those space requirements are the same no matter what input system you use. A lot of Kinect's failure to take off was software design, I think, and how it was implemented. The tech has always had potential, but like so many novel systems, game designers don't know how to use it best and no-one wants to take on the economic burden of finding out what's best.

VR has the same issues, but there are more people invested in experimenting to find what works and what doesn't.

 

[Deleted member 13524]

So I'm the only one here who's concerned that an input device that basically consists of recording audio and video of me will only work when sending said audio+video through the internet to some unknown place?