Microsoft has been quite generous with hackers recently, instead of going the way of Apple when it comes to jailbreaks, they embraced the concept by involving the jailbreaking community, and working with them to ensure that the jailbreak could be done in a way that it doesnt promote piracy. Now they are giving Kinect the same treatment.
Kinect is an innovative new technology, that has been quite underutilized by being included only with a gaming console. The hacking community has already begun using Kinect in interesting and innovative ways without waiting for Microsoft to release a PC version of the technology.
Microsoft is trying to embrace and encourage this community, and has announced that it will releasing the Kinect for Windows SDK. A non-commerical version of this SDK will be available for Kinect enthusiasts to tinker with.
This version will be a free download that will include “key pieces of the Kinect system, audio technology, system application programming interfaces and direct control of the Kinect sensor itself”. A commercial version of the SDK will also be released in the future.
This is great news indeed for those waiting to take control of their computer using the completely new an innovative ways as made possible with Kinect.