Microsoft Kinect returns as a sensor for cloud AI
Last year, Microsoft turned the production of the game controller Kinect, which never became popular. But the technology itself is too promising to simply abandon it, and at the Build 2018 conference the company showed a new sensor for developers - Project Kinect for Azure.
What's new?
Microsoft decided to combine the capabilities of the 3D scanner and artificial intelligence services of Azure cloud platform. Deep learning technologies make it easy to work with 3D images and allow you to manage less resources. Kinect for Azure itself is equipped with a megapixel depth sensor (1024x1024 pixels), a color camera with 4K-resolution and microphones for 360-degree audio monitoring. The system has a high energy efficiency.
With the help of the new Kinect, the drones will be able to navigate in space, skirting obstacles and recognizing hand gestures. Another proposed scenario - a system of holographic communication, but in practice everything depends only on the imagination of engineers.
Project Kinect for Azure is the fourth iteration of the technology, which will be used in the next version of Microsoft HoloLens . In the current model of glasses installed sensors of the third generation, and the retired controller for the Xbox One was the second generation. The original Kinect for the Xbox 360 came out in 2010.