During the CES 2012 Conference where we watched and waited anxiously in the hope of some new Xbox 360 announcements via the live stream – nothing came of it. But what was announced was the official release date of Kinect for Windows PC’s and it’s over-priced introduction into the PC market.

Set at a retail price of $249.00 this is around $100 more than Kinect for the Xbox 360, but the excuse for the high tier pricing is that the Kinect Sensor for PC has been optimised to pick up objects as close as 50cm, with further software enhancements. It may be Kinect, but in effect it’s more of a Kinect 1.5 so that it can be used with more accuracy for many purposes beyond just standing there and waving your arms around as with the console version.

Whilst in-built Kinect Laptop functionality hasn’t yet been officially announced, The Daily were given the opportunity to test out new Asus netbooks running Windows 8, and they featured an array of small sensors stretching over the top of the screen where a webcam would normally be. At the bottom of the display were what appeared to be LEDs as the Kinect Technology was stripped down for portable usage. The use of Kinect for laptops would indicate that Microsoft would license out the technology to manufacturers rather than build an in-house suite of laptops… or…. as we prefer, Kinectops!

Taking a wild guess, since Kinect requires you to stand quite a distance away for optimum usage – with this built in to a laptop the functionality would somewhat change. The software would need to be enhanced likely for close up face shots only or to recognise hand gestures to swap programs. Voice control would be the major feature as there is nothing more satisfying that the sheer speed of “See it, Say it…” and then as if by magic what you want appears.

When images of new Kinect enabled laptops surface and Microsoft issue official press releases on the matter – we’ll be sure to keep you updated.

Source: The Daily