Microsoft unveiled the newest version of the PC Kinect SDK during their Techfest event in Remond, WA this week. With the update, the Kinect on PC will be able to read a set of new hand gestures, including the pinch-to-zoom motion used on most smartphones, and pointing to "click" and move on-screen items.
(It's worth noting that Techfest is not the same as Microsoft's "Start" financial year conference, which is also scheduled for this week. The co-aligning of the two events may have played a role in starting the rumor that certain media outlets had been invited to the internal discussion to preview the next Xbox.)
Microsoft has been working to refine the Kinect's sensitivity and expand its repertoire and, at Techfest, the new results have a clear benefit for game designers. The SDK adds gestures that will be familiar to anyone who's used a smartphone or tablet, albeit on a larger scale. The "Pinch-to-Zoom" feature, for example is done with two hands instead of two fingers. Users can scroll/pan a camera by moving their hand to any edge of the screen, and can "click" the screen by queezing their hands. As Microsoft demonstrated for The Verge, you can now play "Jetpack Joyride" on Kinect just by opening and closing your fist.
The gaming application of these controls isn't limited to glorified mobile ports, though. With the squeeze "button," players would be able to do move, jump, or activate context sensitive prompts in a more reasonable way. Similarly giving players intuitive camera controls makes free movement a much more feasible possibility. "Pinch-to-Zoom" will allow for everything from examining clues in adventure games to adjusting the magnification on binoculars or a sniper rifle.
Modders and developers have been using Kinect to produce innovative and sometimes even effective control schemes for the PC since the device first launched, but game designers have had significantly less success. Though the PC version of the Kinect has outpaced the original Xbox model from square one, the new software may be exactly the thing the device needs to become a practically functional gaming peripheral.
While the Kinect's new gestures are far from perfect from a gamer's perspective, the move towards a recognizable common gesture language could make all the difference when Microsoft looks to sell consumers on the benefits of Kinect 2.0, a rumored component of the next Xbox.
