Microsoft has not been shy about their investment in the Kinect motion sensor technology. The company pushed the tech hard over the holiday season on the Xbox 360 and next year it's set to make a debut on desktop PCs. It seems that Microsoft may also be looking to integrate Kinect into laptops in the very near future.
The Daily was given the opportunity to test drive some laptop prototypes that had built in Kinect sensors. The laptops looked like standard Asus machines that were running Windows 8 but they in fact had an array of sensors along the top of the screen right around where a camera would normally be integrated. At the bottom of the screen was a row of LEDs.
Microsoft told The Daily that these laptops were early prototypes of machines with integrated Kinect technology. While none of that functionality was directly demoed you can easily imagine what having built in motion tracking and voice technology would be like.
Gesture controls for starting and stopping video or switching programs could easily be integrated. If the voice recognition tech makes it into these laptops things get even better with the ability to control Windows 8 functionality directly with your voice.
Just recently, at CES, Microsoft showed off a Kinect bundle for desktop PCs so it's clear that the company has big plans of using that sensor outside of the Xbox 360. If Windows 8 comes with built in functionality for Kinect, and laptops start seeing the technology built right in, Microsoft could quickly see the type of market penetration with Kinect that they have been pushing for since the beginning.
Would you use gesture or voice controls on your laptop? Let us know what you think in the comments.
