Could Microsoft’s Kinect be reborn as a virtual reality controller?

By Jon Porter

The Kinect port’s removal from the Xbox One S might have lead some to believe that the accessory has reached the end of its life, but a recent Microsoft blog post suggests otherwise.

The post details the research efforts of Microsoft’s research lab in Cambridge, who have been hard at work repurposing the Kinect camera accessory as a device for tracking hand and finger movements as part of a project called Handpose.

The blog post details how the researchers expect the technology to be used in an office setting, to use your fingers to skip between slides in a powerpoint presentation or to hang up on a colleague over Skype, but where the technology gets really interesting is in its ability to simulate hand movement in a virtual environment.

But more interestingly, this Handpose technology is also shown being used by people wearing virtual reality headsets, completely removing the need for a controller at all.

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At present, Microsoft has not announced any firm VR hardware for the Xbox but with Sony gearing up for the release of its own PlayStation VR there are rumors that Microsoft has more decisive plans …read more

Source:: techradar.com – Gaming