Kinect

Kinect (derived from the English kinetic connect) is a hardware to control the video game consoles Xbox 360 and Xbox One, which was sold since early November 2010. Kinect was developed by Microsoft in conjunction with a company called PrimeSense. @1@2Template:Dead link/www.microsoft.com (page no longer available, search web archives) Players can use it to control software using body movements alone instead of conventional gamepads. Kinect was first unveiled to the public at the E3 game show on June 1, 2009, then still codenamed Project Natal.

This new type of control is made possible by a combination of PrimeSense depth sensor, 3D microphone, color camera and software. A game is controlled by movements as well as speech.

On July 14, 2009, Bill Gates also announced that he would port this technology to Windows. Primarily, it is to facilitate menu selection within the Windows Media Center. But also the development team of the office application Microsoft Office is in the process of developing new interfaces between humans and computers. @1@2Template:Dead link/news.cnet.com (page no longer available, search web archives)

Johnny Chung Lee was hired to develop this motion controller and ideas for its implementation. He studied human-computer interfaces at Carnegie Mellon University and became known for his unusual projects on Wiimote controllers for the Nintendo Wii game console.

At the sales launch in Germany on 10 November 2010, the price was 149 euros. On November 15, 2010, Microsoft announced that Kinect had already sold over 1 million units. 15 days later, Microsoft confirmed that a total of 2.5 million Kinect had been sold.

After selling 35 million units, Microsoft stopped production of the Kinect in 2017.

Project Name

Project Natal is named after the place of origin Natal of the Brazilian developer Alex Kipman, who created the project.

Games for Kinect (selection)

The following games were available at the Kinect launch (selection):

• Child of Eden (Ubisoft)
• Dance Central (MTV Games)
• Dance Evolution (Konami)
• Kinect Joy Ride (Microsoft)
• Kinect Sports (Microsoft)
• Kinect Star Wars (Microsoft)
• Kinect Adventures (Microsoft)
• Kinectimals (Microsoft)
• Your Shape: Fitness Evolved (Ubisoft)
• Motion Sports (Ubisoft)
• Motion Sports Adrenaline (Ubisoft)
• Sonic Free Riders (Sega)
• Game Party 4 (Warner Bros. Games)
• Crossboard 7 (Konami)
• Fighters Uncaged (Ubisoft)
• Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 1 (EA/Warner Bros. Games)
• Sports Island Freedom (Hudson)
• EA Sports Active 2 (EA Sports)
• Zumba Fitness
• Rise of Nightmares
• Fruit Ninja Kinect (Halfbrick)
• Power Up Heroes (Ubisoft)
• Harry Potter for Kinect
• Disneyland Adventure

New games are no longer to be expected.