Microsoft confirms Kinect hackers to get official developer kit

I think this is a great step for Microsoft. I believe they've learned a lot from the good PR that Android has received due in part to Androids large and outspoken developer community. I'm sure Microsoft has also noticed a lot of the negativity surrounding Motorola and their decision to lock down boot loaders (effectively removing any developers chance to mess with the phone). That and the mess that Sony has created by suing the people who hacked the PS3.<p>So, kudos to Microsoft.

This is a great move by Microsoft. Not only will they get free development on their platform, this will cement the Kinect as the next major gaming device. If only Sony could see the benefits of allowing an open SDK on their platform.

Related: Adafruit just pointed out that Johnny Lee was behind the original Kinect bounty-<p><a href="http://www.adafruit.com/blog/2011/02/21/johhny-lee-was-behind-the-kinect-bounty-contest-with-a-little-help-from-us/" rel="nofollow">http://www.adafruit.com/blog/2011/02/21/johhny-lee-was-behin...</a>

Very happy about this. Was thinking of picking up a Kinect when the original hackers made a USB driver and started an SDK. Decided to wait and I'm so glad Microsoft is actually pushing it like this. Would love to see it all tied in to Visual Studio and/or XNA.

I wonder how their motion tracking compares with PrimeSense's OpenNI and NITE. Does anybody know if this SDK provides full access to player tracking and gesture information, or is it basically like libfreenect, allowing access to the raw data?

Microsoft Research post on the matter: <a href="http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/news/features/kinectforwindowssdk-022111.aspx" rel="nofollow">http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/news/features/kinectforw...</a>

This is great news! Would there be interest from hackers to participate in a competition to spur open-sourced innovation for the Kinect when the SDK comes out?

More 'coolness' from Microsoft. While I never 'hated' them, this is really feeling odd. Hope they'll stay that way and can make Windows Phone attractive as well.<p>Hell, if they keep on like this, maybe even Windows will be 'cool' one day. So confusing!

As an app developer this is great news... can't wait to see some of the innovative uses that come out of this. The demo video released earlier this week of kinect/windows phone 7 integration was a great first step.

Great to hear news like this from microsoft, I think real kudos is deserved for moves like this.<p>No matter what sort of benefit they get from it.<p>Probably too much to ask that they release the SDK cross platform :)

This is essentially free R&#38;D for Microsoft. No brainer.

The kinect and MS is going to play an interesting role in NUI. The surface 2 is also still on the way. It's exciting to see that MS still innovates.

No word on licensing. I wonder if it will allow code to be ported to non-Windows platforms.<p>And prevent Microsoft from suing whoever tries that.

This is cool! I have some equipment at work that I'd love to take kinect images of and broadcast :&#62;

This is awesome. I've been playing with the openkinect and OpenNI drivers, and it gets pretty painful.

Apps for the living room. WHEE !

This act of coolness on the part of Microsoft makes my head hurt. I can't correlate "Microsoft" with "smart decision" anymore. I need an advil.<p>On a serious note: this is a really good way to stick it to Sony too, since they're going after GeoHot and making themselves look like assholes doing it.