Forget hacking the Kinect to work on a PC. At least, if you can distract yourself long enough to wait for the WAVI Xtion, a strangely-named Kinect-like motion camera for the PC.
While ASUS will be manufacturing the peripheral, they’re collaborating with those who’ve actually had hands-on experience with the Xbox 360’s motion system. Not Microsoft, but Israel-based PrimeSense, the same guys who built the Kinect’s admittedly impressive camera technology.
The Wavi Xtion will actually consist of more than the camera — it will come with an ASUS-developed “next generation user interface” that takes advantage of the 3D-sensing technology. According to the press release, the UI will allow users to browse multimedia content, access the web and play around with social networks using similar gesture-based motions available in Kinect-connected Xbox 360s.
Of course, ASUS can’t build all the software to take advantage of this. That’s why they’re also releasing the Xtion PRO, a development platform for building applications that employ the 3D-sensing camera. Sounds exciting.
Imagine: by this time in two years, we could all be downloading torrents by swiping and punching fake buttons in the air. That’s progress right there. Or something like that. The WAVI Xtion will be on hand at CES later this week, with a projected second quarter release date.