Microsoft have announced that they will be releasing a non-commercial version of the software development kit for their motion sensing peripheral Kinect. The pack is designed to let academics and enthusiasts play with the technology ahead of the release of a full commercial version in future. The official SDK will give programmers more advanced control over Kinect, and should give rise to some even more incredible Kinect hacks.
Microsoft made the announcement on the Microsoft Research site, saying that "The SDK will give users access to deep Kinect system information such as audio, system application-programming interfaces, and direct control of the Kinect sensor."
Microsoft hope the non-commercial Kinect SDK will encourage experimentation and research into new forms of UI using their hardware. Microsoft's chief research and strategy officer, Craig Mundie says “as breakthrough technologies like these reach scale the resulting creativity and invention will open up a whole new world of possibilities for computing."
We've already had a good taste of the creativity and invention possible with Kinect, thanks to a series of amazing Kinect hacks that have emerged since the device was cracked last year.
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