Some Windows 8 Laptops May Come With Built-In Kinect Sensors 140
An anonymous reader writes to point out reports that Asus is "working on a new laptop that will include Kinect gestures and will be compatible with Windows 8," and adds, "What does this mean for the consumer? Portable gestures in Windows 8!" Wired has an article based on the same report, which mentions also the prospect of devices incorporating alternative gesture-tracking software from SoftKinectic and others.
This could be amazing for the disabled (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:This could be amazing for the disabled (Score:4, Funny)
Re: (Score:3)
even if you don't have parkinsons, it might look like it sometimes...
Re: (Score:2)
Kinect's recommendations were something like "at least 1.8m from sensor"
Maybe its a different sensor.
Re: (Score:1)
Yeah, I bet they are designing/calibrating these ones for closer use.
Re: (Score:2)
Its probably just like the long range one works from 1.8 to 3 metres and the short range one works from 0.2 to 0.5 metres.
Indeed (Score:2)
Aside from expense and size, there's no reason you couldn't have a kinect with motorized or even swivelling lenses.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3)
Re: (Score:1)
Re:This could be amazing for the disabled (Score:5, Informative)
I remember seeing the Samsung touch screen see through Window on youtube, from CES and think Kinect, coupled with Windows like that, would make for a pretty awesome house!
Re:This could be amazing for the disabled (Score:4, Interesting)
You know I was confused for a moment because I work with "challenged" people all the time, until I realized you might have meant physically challenged people.
Seriously though, how is extra resolution on the kinect sensor going to help physically challenged people? I know some people that have challenges like that and I don't see how extra resolution is going to help with recognizing their hand gestures. I would think that training the software would be far more effective and required because each challenged person is going to have different "quirks" to their movements that need to be learned.
Having that sensor alone as a standard on laptops going forward, regardless of resolutions, seems to open the doors for software to help all sorts of people interact with their computers more effectively and easily.
Of course, ironically, one of the last articles had a poster with ALS being lambasted because he did not take the time to cut and paste from his blog instead of just linking to it. The Jerk! I know right? Would extra resolution help with somebody like Stephen Hawking to recognize facial twitches reliably?
Re: (Score:1)
A: A nigger!
Re: (Score:2)
Is this a variation of political correctness saying we can't call retards retards?
Re: (Score:2, Funny)
Forget that. I want to have a password in the form of an interpretive dance.
Re: (Score:2)
It could.
One of the interesting things about Kinect is that it has two VGA imagers - an IR one (for depth) and an RGB one (for visuals). The problem is that the Xbox360's USB port can't handle the data required so the IR imager is only generating QVGA images. The end result of this is fine details like hands are resolved only into well, blocks. It's why there are no finger gestures - there's insufficient depth information to
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:1)
And even more amazing if you could disable it.
Can we get the systems with windows 7? (Score:2)
With the big changes in windows 8 I don't think alot of people will want it right a way.
Re: (Score:2)
Doubt it. When Vista came out, there were tons of laptops people wanted to buy explicitly to wipe Vista and put XP on them, but the few I knew that tried had a ton of driver issues and all sorts of other problems. Granted, this was within the first month or so of Vista launch, so it could have taken a while for the XP drivers for the hardware to get out there, but it was pretty broken at first.
I would expect similar issues with Windows 8 hardware, especially the Kinect sensors. I wouldn't be surprised if
Re: (Score:2)
It wont be the same and Windows 7 will be there. That was only true for the first 3 months of Vista where OEMS had a rude awakening.
I am struggling to get my parents to leave XP. There excuse is its a new computer they bought in Christmas 2007 ( a year after Vista). My father is not a computere genius but he reads the news and knows Vista was a POS and Dell advertised their XP 64 line of XPS for consumers and not just business users.
Most OEMs this time arround will learn the lesson and offer both or have dr
Re: (Score:2)
I am struggling to get my parents to leave XP. There excuse is its a new computer they bought in Christmas 2007 ( a year after Vista). My father is not a computere genius but he reads the news and knows Vista was a POS and Dell advertised their XP 64 line of XPS for consumers and not just business users.
I think your father made a good decision there. Dell XPS with XP64 sounds like a nice classic combination. On the other hand I personally avoid XP installations so I understand your standpoint too.
Re: (Score:2)
Re:Can we get the systems with windows 7? (Score:4, Funny)
Secure boot is only required for the ARM version of Windows 8. MS has explicitly said that you'll be able to install any OS you want on x86 based Windows 8 machines. Do some research before you make accusations and you won't make yourself look like a fool.
http://www.extremetech.com/computing/114173-windows-8-secure-boot-calm-down-microsoft-is-simply-copying-apple [extremetech.com]
Do you know why you were modded funny? (Score:2)
It's because W8 platforms will come with new devices. And these new devices will require drivers. And those drivers will magically be unavailable for prior versions of Windows, and Linux - as prior versions of Windows have done less successfully. It will be some thinly veiled part of the logo requirement. Sometimes it's because when you get a new PC your printer/scanner/MFD manufacturer would just prefer you buy a new one, or has gone out of business or whatever. Sometimes it's because the drivers for t
Re: (Score:2)
You don't do any research before making stuff up do you? Windows 8 works with Windows 7 drivers. Same as Windows 7 can use Vista drivers. Perhaps in the future you should do some research before you go spouting out inaccurate information?
Re: (Score:2)
And in that world you had better hope they are still a monopoly as that will be the only thing stopping them from locking you out of features on new hardware for no reason.
Hopefully before this is a problem we'll have forgotten they were ever in charge of prevention of innovation.
Re: (Score:2)
Metro UI is touch based and laptops don't have (Score:2)
Metro UI is touch based and most laptops don't have touch screens and I hope windows 8 will have more of the older windows 7 desktop the betas cut to much.
Re: (Score:1, Insightful)
I think Windows eight will suck for no other reason than it doesn't follow mod2. You only ever purchase the mod2 of windows. 98 sucked 98 2nd edition didn't me/2000 xp/vista/seven there is a shit version before a non-shit version historically speaking. Though some features look nice. Perhaps this new filesystem will be worth it's weight in diamonds.
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
Your mod2 theory falls flat because XP wasn't shit and Vista was (immensely so). 98 didn't suck either, at least not as bad as 95. The only thing that really sucked about ME was the removal of real mode DOS (yes, I know, there are mods available to bring this back, but that requires modifying system files and so IMO is only useful for hobby or bullshit usage).
One does have to admit that Vista is way better than any 9x-based OS simply because it has the stronger NT underpinnings that make it more secure and
Re: (Score:2)
Most of the complaints about Vista were due to hardware manufactures not releasing compatible drivers. Once they did most of the complaints went away.
The majority of the first issues I came across (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
I think Windows eight will suck for no other reason than it doesn't follow mod2. You only ever purchase the mod2 of windows. 98 sucked 98 2nd edition didn't me/2000 xp/vista/seven there is a shit version before a non-shit version historically speaking. Though some features look nice. Perhaps this new filesystem will be worth it's weight in diamonds.
Aside from their unrelated NT vs Win9x heritage and targeted audiences (Consumer:WinME, business:2000), Windows Me came out September 14, 2000. Windows 2000 came out 17 February 2000.
Windows Me was Windows 98 third edition. Given the jump from NT6, Windows 2000 was "Mod1" using your terminology and Windows XP was "Mod2". All things considered Windows 2000 was pretty damn good.
Main problem at the time was users were clinging on to DOS. Even though ME still had a DOS based boot system, it dissalowed real-mode
Re: (Score:2, Interesting)
I have not met a single person who likes Windows 8. Average Joes look at the screen funny and then ask why is this computer pretending to be a cell phone?
Metro on Windows Phone 7 rocks and has great reviews but I am not blowing dough to leave tweets on tweetorama as the vast majority of users use PCs for work now and let their phones and tablets waste such time.
I think it will bomb. Especially in the corporate environment. Many will be resentful and angry as after staying with IE 6/XP for 12 years the last
Re: (Score:1)
Depending on how long MS supports 7 (and given that yeah, most users do stick with the version it comes with), 8 may have quite a number of people hold off from hardware upgrades until something better comes along. It's really a pity that MS, Apple and Canonical seem determined to foist tablet OSes onto laptops and workstations. It's a serious regression. Windows 7 is actually good, I'll admit to keeping it on a spare partition on the laptop and a copy under Virtualbox on the Desktop. Apple had just abo
Re: (Score:2)
Nothing prevents you from using alternative DEs on Windows. Other than the lack of interest in creating them.
Re: (Score:1)
An interest that might develop once Win8 comes out.
Exciting (Score:3)
What really has me excited about Windows 8 is Kinect. I think we're going to see a big transformation in the landscape of user interface in the next several years pushing us towards device-less interfaces.
Granted, this stuff isn't a replacement, it's a supplement. So don't think I'm preaching the death of touch or mouse and keyboard. The more options of well developed and useful interfaces we have the better.
Re:Exciting (Score:5, Funny)
What really has me excited about Windows 8 is Kinect. I think we're going to see a big transformation in the landscape of user interface in the next several years pushing us towards device-less interfaces.
Yeah, we're all going to create Excel spreadsheets by randomly waving our hands in front of the screen.
Re:Exciting (Score:4, Funny)
Stop trying to drag us into the past. The future is now. You just think of the numbers and they'll appear in the spreadsheet.
I don't know. Some bullshit I read on a tech blog.
Re:Exciting (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Exciting (Score:4, Funny)
That pretty much sums up my experience with Excel :)
Re: (Score:2)
Yeah, we're all going to create Excel spreadsheets by randomly waving our hands in front of the screen.
No that's how you create PowerPoint presentations!
Re: (Score:1)
That's also how you GIVE one!
Re:Exciting (Score:5, Insightful)
What really has me excited about Windows 8 is Kinect. I think we're going to see a big transformation in the landscape of user interface in the next several years pushing us towards device-less interfaces.
Granted, this stuff isn't a replacement, it's a supplement. So don't think I'm preaching the death of touch or mouse and keyboard. The more options of well developed and useful interfaces we have the better.
I think device-less interface make sense for hand held computers, and less and less sense as you scale up the size of the computer.
Contrary to the scenes in CSI-Miami, flinging things around a huge table sensor is not particularly useful or efficient. Nor is reaching across your keyboard to move or select some object by dragging it across your 24 inch screen.
Even on a level of effort basis, waiving hands and fingers around in the air is pretty much a non-starter. (Not to be too George Jetson here...).
Then there is the on/off problem. Were you gesticulating while talking to your work-mate, or editing paragraphs on the page? Mice do nothing much unless you click.
The mouse still rules, and even the Wacom Bamboo line of touch/pen input devices are clumsy approximations.
Mice cost anywhere from 2 to 40 dollars, are amazingly precise, and by now, fully intuitive across all platforms.
If QWERTY can last from 1878 to the present, something far more elegant like the mouse is going to have a very long life.
Kinect will probably remain for games, and maybe music (performance, not listening), and the air guitar is going to become a REAL instrument.
Re:Exciting (Score:4, Insightful)
I'm excited too.
Something that might let me surf websites, go from links to links, control video playback, and have two hands free?
It's A Good Thing.
Re: (Score:2)
Re:Exciting (Score:5, Insightful)
What do you need the other hand for? Grabbing your partner's cock?
A strange inference from my post. Let me try do the same with your post.
You cannot understand what a 2nd hand could be used for, and your seemingly first thought is that it must be used for another man's cock.
There are several possibilities that are floating around in my head right now and let me take a whack at drawing inferences from your post as well.....
1) You are dealing with latent homosexual urges as evidenced by your apparent obsession with grabbing another man's cock.
2) You don't often have partners, because if you did, you would realize that there are 4 hands present and several orifices with the additional person. Cirque Du Soleil abilities aside, your own orifices are irrelevant. Only a single hand is required from either party to work the remote/mouse.
3) You are prepubescent and/or possessing of a small penis. Therefore it would never occur to you that an additional hand might be useful or desired.
4) You have at least one unusually large hand, and again, it would never occur to you that an additional hand would be needed.
Living in the post Atomic Age might cause one to conclude #4 to be correct, but statistically speaking, such mutations are very rare. #2 is certainly possible because this is Slashdot with the ever present stereotype that we are all in our mother's basements awaiting the delivery of Hot Pockets and Mountain Dew. #2 is also possible because the lack of logic and creativity with some people here never ceases to surprise me. #1 could be due to simple anonymous asshole syndrome, which is best explained by the Penny Arcade's Greater Internet Fuckwad Theory.
Hmmmmm.....
I will have to go with #3. You must have a tiny little penis. Do not lament your tiny penis my anonymous friend, because it is not the size that matters but how well you can convince somebody other than yourself to touch it.
These parting words I offer you as comfort [youtube.com].
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
It's the same with touch screens on PCs; it's just not comfortable to sit in front of a keyboard and hold your arms up to perform gestures on screen (or in the air) when you can just rest your arm on your desk and use a mouse.
The voice recognition aspects of Kinect could have lots of uses though, if it's far better than alternative syste
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:1)
Apple is way ahead of them: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YXyNgXTt0ns [youtube.com]
HD or SSD? (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3)
Don't worry - all your data will be safe in the cloud anyway!
Re: (Score:2)
Mod parent funny. It's what they were going for.
And the response is "until it's not. [techcrunch.com]"
And the purpose is..? (Score:5, Interesting)
Kinect in the living room makes sense - voice/gesture commands in place of a remote control is surprisingly useful (when it works). On a laptop though -- what does the Kinect give that a touch screen can't do better? I mean outside of adult entertainment...
On the other hand, if it can support gestures with your eyes, then it might be useful. For example, gaze at a specific window/monitor and having it automatically come into focus could be quite a convenience ... but I don't think we'll see that for a while.
Re: (Score:2)
"automatically come into focus" mucho approve! That's one great idea (stick a keyboard modifier in front of the command, and it could be damned useful.
Re: (Score:1)
It has one thing that could be much better than a touch screen: gesture input without greasy fingerprints on my screen.
This is why, although my newest Sony e-reader has a touch screen, I still use the buttons to flip the pages 99% of the time.
I am actually interested in this technology. I've gotten used to browsing the web on touch screen devices, so much so that I find myself annoyed when I'm browsing a website on my PC and can't "pinch-to-zoom" the tiny text on a page.
20 years ago (Score:5, Funny)
someone talking to themselves walking down the street would have been considered insane or on drugs
now, they just have a bluetooth headset on and are perfectly normal
today, someone sitting alone in the park making random jerky gestures would be someone on drugs, or insane
in 5 years, that's just someone using their kinect-enabled laptop
it's all part of technology's goal of virtualizing the experience of tourette syndrome and schizophrenia for us all
Re: (Score:2)
today, someone sitting alone in the park making random jerky gestures would be someone on drugs, or insane
Uhhhhhhh, I think you forgot the 3rd option dude.
Re: (Score:3)
As usual, 'Dilbert' seems apropos...
http://dilbert.com/strips/comic/1994-10-12/ [dilbert.com]
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
I suddenly have a vision of a bunch of tech workers, professionals, what have you out in public, coffee shops, etc, flailing around like a bunch of epileptics jacked up on coke.
The purpose may, in fact, be to troll the public at large.
Re: (Score:2)
Drat, I was trying to mod this Funny as I was just imaging a bunch of people in a coffeehouse myself, and chose Overrated by accident. But I can't blame a Kinect interface for that.. yet. /replying to undo mod
Re: (Score:2)
what does the Kinect give that a touch screen can't do better?
Actually touch screens are really not very suited to laptops. You don't want to be reaching up to the screen all the time, or covering part of it with your hand when you have a perfectly good keyboard and trackpad available. They only really make sense on phones and tablets.
Eye tracking is another difficult technology. Your eyes tend to flick all over the place as you collate information so you can't really use it for selection or focus in a natural way. When people have tried it they end up staring wide ey
Re: (Score:2)
Aside from gesture control, you can also use Kinect (in theory at least) for making better video chat. One problem with video chat is that the eyes never match, i.e. you look at the other persons face, but they see you looking off into the wild, as the cameras are on top of the monitor, while they should be inside the monitor. With Kinect you have a 3D image where you can correct the perspective of the image so that you looking at the other person ends up looking like you are actually looking at the other p
Re: (Score:2)
This idea is better:
Have the computer figure out if you're talking based on the video feed (facial recognition). If so, activate the microphone and figure out if you're issuing a command to the computer. This will prevent random noises in the background issuing commands to the computer. Bonus points for developing a voice fingerprint to assist in the future if you're issuing commands.
Best part: This will work with any laptop or desktop with a video cam pointed at the user.
(So, if this isn't patented alr
For a start, it's a 3d camera. (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
There aren't many touch-screen PCs out there - there's a few all-in-ones that have touch screens, but they all come with mice. Heck, Apple got patents on such stuff for probably half a decade or more, and nothing's come of it.
Touch interfaces suck on a PC. If it's a desktop, your going to hold your hand up the whole time you're interacting with it? After a few minutes, your arm's going to get tired and then what? Stop using t
Re: (Score:2)
It's also less likely to be covered by Apple patents!
I have a suggestion! (Score:5, Funny)
Re:I have a suggestion! (Score:5, Funny)
So let me get this straight... (Score:5, Funny)
Windows8... With a touch inspired graphical interface... And someone thinks the solution is to include a touch less hardware interface...
I'll skip all the jokes about keeping away from Wwindows... Or a hands-off approach to management, etc. (or not...)
Re: (Score:2)
Kinect interface seems like a useful extension to touch interfaces. There are lots of games out there still that rely on hovering your mouse in an area for an essential action, which is impossible to replicate on touch screens. Kinect can provide that layer of interaction.
Also, inb4 "It looks like you're trying to touch the screen, would you like help?" :D
Re: (Score:2)
C'mon, the people who are OCD about fingerprints on their screen need some loving too.
Re: (Score:2)
It's still basically a touch device, the Kinect. It takes input from how fingers move around in a certain part of space. It'll operate in the same fashion.
But by using that analogy you could as well say that the standard mouse is a touch device.
Gesture (Score:1)
- Block your left elbow with your right hand;
- When you block your elbow you have to say "toe";
Computer shuts down and powers off.
(Courtesy of John Peter Sloan and Dave Dickens [youtube.com])
I've been making gestures for years! (Score:5, Insightful)
I've been making gestures MS products for years. Call it feedback. Hell, I feel like making a gesture right now. The big change? Now we can be ignored 4 ways (keyboard, mouse, sound, gesture).
And people thought Siri was silly... (Score:5, Funny)
Some people were complaining about Siri, saying that for some reason they didn't want to be seen out in public, talking on... a phone.
Well I'd take that over being out in public with my mobile device looking like I was being attacked by an invisible cloud of bees.
Worst airline seat neighbor ever (Score:2)
Afterthought (Score:2)
lessons not learnt (Score:5, Insightful)
Way to kill an excellent concept, MicroIdiots!
Voice control largely failed because nobody wanted to be caught dead talking to his computer and it just doesn't work at all in office environments.
Putting gesture control into notebooks must have been the winner of the "stupid idea of the year" contest, and for some reason it got mixed up with the actual product plan.
Seriously, on a train, in the airport lounge, on the airplane - that's when you really wish your notebook had gesture controls, right? And when you pitch your product to your business partners and give a crucial presentation, that's exactly the moment where you want to rely on more-or-less reliable gesture controls instead of a mouse or keyboard click or remote control.
Totally. The only place dumber than notebooks would've been the Zune.
Re: (Score:2)
Perhaps it *will* work, if short finger gestures are used (and I'm not talking about the obvious finger gesture).
One of the biggest problems with touch interfaces is that they have *friction* -- you're wearing your fingerprints away against a flat surface. I'd love an interface where I can just hover my index finger a few inches away from the screen and have the mouse pointer follow it. Goodbye trackpad. Added benefit -- the difference between move and drag (which is muddy when using a touch interface) is n
A thought (Score:2)
"I see you're looking for *PORN*. I will open a Bing window and help you search."
(5 minutes later)
"You appear you have found what you were looking for. Have a nice evening."
ctrl+alt+delete (Score:2)
Touch screen with the actual touch? (Score:2)
I think the biggest advantage to this is that the Kinect will be able to read gestures so you can act like you have a touch screen without having to pull your hands too far from the keyboard or get your finger prints on your screen. It would also be useful to raise you hand four inches off the keyboard and use an imaginary mouse.
Re: (Score:2)
yeah, if they include mind reading in the interface and joint medicine in the package..
Kinect Sensors? (Score:1)
when did cameras become classified as "Kinect Sensors"?
Re: (Score:3)
When they started detecting distance.
Re: (Score:1)
When they started detecting distance.
stereoscopic cameras have been able to do this for quite some time and more accurately. it's still just a camera.
Re: (Score:1)
Not quite. IIRC, Kinect builds 3D image with a structured light IR projector coupled with IR camera. That's probably the part they called "Kinect sensor". Kinect box is this plus color camera and microphone array.
Re: (Score:2, Informative)
Exactly -- it's not just a camera. Besides which, if "stereoscopic camera" gets a special name instead of just being called "camera", why doesn't this other camera?
The Kinect sensor works similarly to a stereoscopic camera, except:
1. It works in the IR spectrum instead of the visible.
2. Instead of making two recordings and correlating after the fact, one of them is actually fixed and projected (and this is the part that isn't a camera).
For that reason I would expect the approach to fundamentally be more
Interactive fapping. (Score:2)
It's not just about gestures, folks (Score:2)
I can think of a few useful applications that have nothing to do with gesture recognition; the z-depth would allow you to cut the image of the user away from the background, which could be useful for videoconferencing if you want to chat with someone but don't want them to see your surroundings or the other people in the room with you.
Close-field Kinect on a laptop would probably allow you to do very accurate head / eye tracking, so you can do things like the '3d window' effect demonstrated in this video by [youtube.com]
Re:And a locked down bootloader? (Score:5, Funny)
It's ok, someone will make a Metro app that unlocks the loader with a middle-finger gesture. (The devs just need a new name because "Angry Flipped Birds" won them a C&D...)
Re: (Score:2)
x86 based Windows 8 machines will be able to boot any OS you want them too. Only ARM based Windows 8 machines will require secure boot, and that's only if the OEM wants to have the Windows 8 sticker on the machine.
http://www.extremetech.com/computing/114173-windows-8-secure-boot-calm-down-microsoft-is-simply-copying-apple [extremetech.com]
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:1)
You're absolutely right. He should totally call them "n00bfagz," since that's "contemporary."
Re: (Score:2)