Kinect Fusion Boosts Kinect for Windows SDK Update

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On Monday, March 18, 2013, Microsoft rolled out the latest release of the Kinect for Windows (opens in new tab) software development kit (SDK). This represents the largest update to the technology since the SDK (opens in new tab) was first commercially released in February last year, and it includes the Kinect Fusion technology that originated in Microsoft Research.

Kinect Fusion, an implementation of Microsoft Research’s 3-D surface reconstruction technology, can create highly accurate 3-D renderings of people and objects in real time.
Kinect Fusion, an implementation of Microsoft Research’s 3-D surface reconstruction technology, can create highly accurate 3-D renderings of people and objects in real time.

The new release has a number of features that will benefit the academic and research community:

  • Kinect Interactions – A built-in gesture recognizer, Kinect Interactions provides tools that enable the creation of intuitive, smooth, and polished applications that are based on the way people naturally move and gesture. These new tools should spur even more rapid development of Kinect for Windows-based natural user interface (NUI) applications that enable people to interact with their computers and devices through gestures and speech.
  • Kinect Fusion – A commercially-supported implementation of Microsoft Research’s 3-D surface reconstruction technology, Kinect Fusion merges multiple snapshots from the Kinect for Windows sensor to create accurate, full, 3-D renderings of people and objects affordably and in real time. Developers and researchers have been eagerly anticipating the availability of this technology since it was first shown at the ACM SIGGRAPH research conference in August 2011.
  • New OpenCV and MATLAB samples – These graphics and math tools, frequently used in academic research and advanced application development, should be a welcome addition and useful resource for those getting started with Kinect for Windows.

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Another helpful development: earlier this month, Kinect for Windows announced broader availability of academic pricing through Microsoft Authorized Educational Resellers (AERs). Most of these resellers can now offer academic pricing directly to educational institutions; academic researchers; and students, faculty, and staff of public or private K-12 schools, vocational schools, junior colleges, colleges, universities, and scientific or technical institutions. Academic pricing on the Kinect for Windows sensor is currently available through AERs in the United States, Taiwan, and Hong Kong SAR.
 
We eagerly look forward to a seeing what the academic community does with the new features!

—Stewart Tansley (opens in new tab), Director, Microsoft Research Connections
—Kenji Takeda (opens in new tab), Solutions Architect and Technical Manager, Microsoft Research Connections EMEA

 

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