While the Kinect on the Xbox One has not taken off as some would have liked, Microsoft isn’t giving up on the technology. The company has retained some of its development and instilled it into edge-related projects. One such endeavour is Project Kinect for Azure.
Microsoft Build 2018 announces the return of the Kinect brand. The device’s time-of-flight camera is once again the highlight of the project. However, it combines with an onboard AI and small package that hardware developers can use on their own products.
Azure AI powers the product. Developers can make use of it within their own products to achieve real-time hand tracking, high-fidelity spatial mapping, and more. The uses for these features aren’t detailed, but could greatly benefit the surveillance and robotics industries.
The camera uses a 1024×1024 resolution, which Microsoft intends to implement in the company’s next generation of HoloLens helmets.
It will be interesting to see how Kinect’s camera technology will integrate with Azure’s cloud-based machine learning. In any case, this project represents only one among many of the company’s exploits on edge-based computing announced.
(Source: Thurrott)
