Microsoft's plans for Kinect include future laptop, tablet integration

Microsoft’s chief research and strategy officer Craig Mundie recently spoke at the company’s TechForum in Seattle, revealing where Redmond hopes to take Kinect in the coming months and years. The long-term goal is to make the device as cheap and as small as possible so it can fit into a wide range of devices like notebooks and tablets, he said.

Mundie told The Verge that it’s not going to happen tomorrow but Microsoft can see a path towards that sort of thing. Of course, shrinking Kinect isn’t the only challenge Microsoft faces as current iterations don’t work in daylight. As the executive explains, Kinect uses infrared and under direct daylight, the sun simply drowns out the sensor, rendering it useless.

Microsoft recently unveiled a new Envisioning Center that is being used to test their latest ideas and concepts. As we understand it, a number of the demonstrations use Kinect technology in some form or another.

During their visit to the center, the publication noticed that several Kinect sensors looked to be thinner and smaller than existing ones. A company spokesperson declined to comment on whether or not they were sensors based on Kinect 2 technology. Odds are that we won’t see second generation Kinect technology show up until Microsoft announces the Xbox 720.

A little over a year ago we heard rumors that Microsoft was working with Asus to develop a Kinect-equipped Windows 8 laptop but as of writing, we still haven’t heard anything further about that project.