So today the Kinect for Windows team release an update to the SDK, called Kinect for Windows SDK v1.6 along with the new runtime!
Some new things were rolled out or existing stuff has been improved.
So question is : What’s new?
Welcome China!
So since today, the Kinect for Windows sensor is also available in China!
You can get it here.
Taking the sensor to the next level
They improved the SDK in several ways so that the sensors data could be used way better and some things were added to the API.
This is a small overview :
- Ability to detect the orientation of the sensor since they added the data from the 3-axis accelerometer
- Expanded depth range data to beyond 4 meters but is less accurate than closer than 4m
- Color camera settings are tweakable, such as brightness & exposure
- Faster toggling of IR to support multiple overlapping sensors
- Infrared stream is now included into the API so that devs can use it
Improved Developer tools
They also improved the developer tools to enable the new features and make the life as a developer easier.
- Kinect Studio has been updated and now supports all the new features
- Multi sensor skeletal tracking is now supported into one single application
- German speech recognition built-in the SDK
- Improved samples to illustrate the features and demonstrate an example out of the Human Interface Guidelines
OS Support
Last but not least, greater support for operating systems.
- Support for .NET 4.5 & Visual Studio 2012
- Support for Virtual machines : You can now run your sensor and use it in a VM
- Windows 8 desktop application support, no WinRT yet
Windows 8
As you’ve just read, Windows 8 desktop applications are now enabled to use Kinect for Windows, but Windows 8 Modern Apps aren’t.
When this will be included hasn’t been confirmed but if you have scenarios how you could use it, let Ben Lower (@benlower) know!
He commented this on the official announcement of the SDK update :
we don’t currently support WinRT. i’d love to hear what you’re thinking about building and learn how WinRT would help you. please hit me up on twitter (@benlower).
Compatibility
The SDK is fully compatible with the previous versions so they recommend that you upgrade your applications with the latest improvements.
By doing that you are also sure that it would work fine & people can use it in Windows 8!
Who’s next?
Later this year people in Chile, Colombia, the Czech Republic, Greece, Hungary, Poland, and Puerto Rico will be able to buy a sensor as well!
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