Microsoft is no longer building any Kinect devices for consoles or PCs, writes Fast Co. Design. Since their 2010 introduction on the Xbox 360 and through major updates for Xbox One and PC, the sensors combined a depth-sensing camera, a regular video camera, and a microphone array into a device that Microsoft hoped would usher in a new wave of games and apps packed with voice and motion-based controls. Microsoft’s own marketing promised gamers that they themselves would be the controller.
With Kinect, Microsoft appeared to be leading the tech world with a rich mix of voice and motion controls that nobody else could match, all neatly packaged into a consumer-friendly box.
But a world of compelling voice and motion games never really materialized, so a device that once held such promise—as a box in your living room that you talk to; as a showcase of machine vision; as a basis for complex multimodal input mixing controllers, movement, and voice—is being killed off after never quite living up to the potential we felt it had. And as someone who still uses a Kinect every single day, I’m more than a little saddened.
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