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The technology had been developed by engineers in the Israeli military. When asked about why he thought of Apple first, Beracha told Cult of Mac that "It was the most natural place for the technology." The negotiations didn't go so well. Beracha figured the technology was so good that he would be able to sell it to anyone. In the end, it came down to "Apple is a pain in the ass," Beracha reportedly said with a smile on his face.
Unfortunately for Apple, Beracha wasn't happy with the way negotiations for the motion control technology were being handled. Cupertino insisted on being controlling: meetings were limited by the company's insistence on secrecy, not to mention contractual demands, legal agreements, and NDAs. Beracha went looking at other companies, and Microsoft ended up playing its cards right.
The decision to go with Apple makes more sense in 2010 than it did two years ago. We now know how much Apple CEO Steve Jobs hates buttons, how he wants as few of them on his devices as possible, and how much the company is pushing multi-touch. It doesn't get any more "button-less" in computing, however, than a full body interface like the Xbox Kinect.
Microsoft chose to go with the Xbox as a start for the technology but one must remember that, over a year ago Bill Gates said that he would like to see Kinect on Windows one day. He listed a few possible areas of implementation: media consumption, interacting during meetings, collaboration, and communication.
Apple doesn't sell a gaming console so that industry would not have been a likely candidate for the technology. Had the negotiations gone differently, would we have seen it in Macs, the iPad, or maybe the Apple TV instead?
User Comments: 56
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The only reason Apple is able to be a "pain in the ass" is because they have a big userbase, so developers are willing to follow every rule and restriction apple can think of
This stroy makes me happy
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i like this device, i hope he come to pc very soon.
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princeton said:
I wonder if steve is going to call up microsoft and start yelling. You know, like he did with bungie :P. Apple seems to be the lord of ******* up things that could be huge money makers.
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If I remember correctly the Kinnect was originally created by an Israli firm which Microsoft purchased. When they can't do it themselves Microsoft simply buys the tech or software they need. Remember they purchased Bungie after all...and where would they be without Halo?
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LNCPapa said:
They'd still have Windows and Office - and making just as much money as they were before. This is a capitalist society - nothing wrong with purchasing the talent in my opinion.
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This is more than a controllerless remote control. The problem with many reviews on the Kinect actually don't highlight the complexity and the significance of the technology. This is the dawning of the Star Trek Enterprise "sensor array". This is not a webcam, although it has twin cameras. This is an infrared 3D sensor. The best way to understand how it works is to use the analogy of the pinscreen. These are the boxes with the sliding metal or plastic pins that leave an impression in relief of a hand or face, or indeed, any object placed in the box. Basically, what happens is that an infrared transponder fires millions of infrared beams and the resulting reflections are visualised on the TV screen. What this means is that Kinect is describing it's environment by shooting out millions and millions of infrared beams.
Obviously, how well it does this depends on the ability of the receivers to collect the reflection information, the power of the computer processor and the programming of the software. All of these are in their infancy and it may be that IR is not the best way of sensing the environment. Perhaps future sensors will include UV sensors as well as IR and the cameras.
Hopefully, it's now possible to understand that the Playstation Move with it's webcam/eye toy and the gyroscopic sensors, glowing bulb and acceleration sensors is pretty good technologically, the Kinect is in a league of its own. This for me is where Microsoft has let itself down with its marketing. I think it needs to focus on explaining the technology and the significance of it not only to gaming, but to the world in general. (Of course, MS bought it in, but they've developed the software operation in house)
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