Microsoft Has Stopped Manufacturing The Kinect • Hacker News Board

Re: Microsoft Has Stopped Manufacturing The Kinect

#161

Post by ptx » Wed, Oct 25, 2017, 7:25 PM UTC

Bjorkbat wrote: post #67

This is a shame. I mean, yeah, it was a pretty awkward gaming accessory, but outside the context of gaming people were doing some pretty fun things with it. A powerful sensor at a ridiculously cheap cost that you could use to create amazing things, provided of course your imagination wasn't weighed down by the latest dumb tech trend. That last statement is just as true now as it was when the Kinect originally came ou…

> Don't forget, smartwatches originated from a highly successful Kickstarter campaign.

Also don't forget that Sony Ericsson released the MBW-100 smartwatch[1] several years before Kickstarter existed ... so I'm not sure how they could have originated on Kickstarter.

[1] https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=385SISfXUNU

Re: Microsoft Has Stopped Manufacturing The Kinect

#162

Post by kabdib » Wed, Oct 25, 2017, 7:28 PM UTC

Benjammer wrote: post #90

microcolonel wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> ridiculously cheap cost I think that's the problem, I figure it was meant to increase XBox game licensing money, not turn a direct profit.

Isn't this the backbone of the entire console gaming industry though? Has there ever been a popular console that directly turned a profit through hardware sales? I was under the impression that basically the entire revenue stream comes from game licensing fees from publishers, with hardware as loss leaders across the board.

AFAIK, all of the recent consoles have been profit making on just the hardware alone. Not very much money per unit at first, but none of them shipped as a loss leader.

Re: Microsoft Has Stopped Manufacturing The Kinect

#163

Post by Nanite » Wed, Oct 25, 2017, 7:35 PM UTC

Matterport's camera system, a low cost alternative for laser based systems , for 3d mapping interiors, was originally based on a kinect hack back in 2010. Not sure where they are getting their current sensors, but they're doing quite well, the underlying technology is definitly not dead.

https://matterport.com/pro2-3d-camera/

Re: Microsoft Has Stopped Manufacturing The Kinect

#164

Post by rb808 » Wed, Oct 25, 2017, 7:43 PM UTC

dalfonso wrote: post #96

One thing that hasn't been mentioned: Kinect was Microsoft's reaction to Wii's success. I worked at Microsoft when the first Kinect came out. I spoke with a few members of that team (non-engineers). My question was very clear -- are you expecting this to takeover for controller based gaming? I don't recall all the responses, but I think the overall sentiment was along the lines of "No, but it might", whereas my thoug…

> I think the overall sentiment was along the lines of "No, but it might",

This is business though. Lots of stupid side products and features are launched to compete with ideas that might take over. If it doesn't, fine but if it does become popular you aren't 5 years behind and dead in the water.

Re: Microsoft Has Stopped Manufacturing The Kinect

#165

Post by phdsolutions » Wed, Oct 25, 2017, 7:43 PM UTC

We built a commercially viable product with the 2nd generation Kinect that calculates cubic dimensions of packages for the Transportation/Logistics industry. As others have already stated, the sensor capabilities at the price point offered are unbeatable.

For context: our device is capable of measuring the dimensions to a 5mm accuracy on cuboidal (box-shaped) objects sized between 60mm and 1200mm (approx 2.4" to 48")

The device has passed certification by some pretty rigid government bodies in North America that spent a significant amount of time evaluating it to ensure it measures correctly ALL the time.

Of course we always knew this day would come eventually, but it kinda sucks that it had to be today though. Time to buy up those surplus refurbs I suppose..

Re: Microsoft Has Stopped Manufacturing The Kinect

#166

Post by icefo » Wed, Oct 25, 2017, 7:44 PM UTC

freeloop3 wrote: post #128

emodendroket wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The main reason Sony killed OtherOS was that they began to think it could be used to circumvent copy protection for games. In Kinect's case I'm guessing the pricing was set at least in part with the idea that the games would make up for low-to-negative profit margins.

I'm not so sure it was so cut and dried as that. The air force was using them to create a supercomputer using other-OS and Sony was selling it as a loss. I think they were worried about people buying them up and not purchasing games.

A professor in my college also did exactly this: https://lacal.epfl.ch/112bit_prime

They used about 200ps3 to find some prime number (cryptography related)

Re: Microsoft Has Stopped Manufacturing The Kinect

#167

Post by ifhd » Wed, Oct 25, 2017, 7:47 PM UTC

Bjorkbat wrote: post #67

This is a shame. I mean, yeah, it was a pretty awkward gaming accessory, but outside the context of gaming people were doing some pretty fun things with it. A powerful sensor at a ridiculously cheap cost that you could use to create amazing things, provided of course your imagination wasn't weighed down by the latest dumb tech trend. That last statement is just as true now as it was when the Kinect originally came ou…

> they seem mostly resigned to following trends

The speaker thing was Amazon creating a trend (or fad if you really see it that way).

Re: Microsoft Has Stopped Manufacturing The Kinect

#168

Post by ifhd » Wed, Oct 25, 2017, 7:48 PM UTC

Benjammer wrote: post #90

microcolonel wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> ridiculously cheap cost I think that's the problem, I figure it was meant to increase XBox game licensing money, not turn a direct profit.

Isn't this the backbone of the entire console gaming industry though? Has there ever been a popular console that directly turned a profit through hardware sales? I was under the impression that basically the entire revenue stream comes from game licensing fees from publishers, with hardware as loss leaders across the board.

Wasn't nintendo making money on the Wii pretty much the entire time?

Re: Microsoft Has Stopped Manufacturing The Kinect

#169

Post by ifhd » Wed, Oct 25, 2017, 7:50 PM UTC

swang wrote: post #102

Bjorkbat wrote: post #67

This is a shame. I mean, yeah, it was a pretty awkward gaming accessory, but outside the context of gaming people were doing some pretty fun things with it. A powerful sensor at a ridiculously cheap cost that you could use to create amazing things, provided of course your imagination wasn't weighed down by the latest dumb tech trend. That last statement is just as true now as it was when the Kinect originally came ou…

i mean, the amazon echo was a pretty interesting new thing that they created a market for. tthen once they realized people were buying it every big tech company jumped on it to not get behind. the problem is if google doesn't go into the "speaker with a voice assistant" space, they allow amazon to possibly gain dominance in said space. this is why everyone wants to get in on drone delivery, self-driving cars, vr, etc…

But at some point shouldn't someone stop to question how valuable the space really is?

I suppose at least the data is worth a lot towards better voice control efforts.

Re: Microsoft Has Stopped Manufacturing The Kinect

#170

Post by giobox » Wed, Oct 25, 2017, 7:55 PM UTC

Bjorkbat wrote: post #67

This is a shame. I mean, yeah, it was a pretty awkward gaming accessory, but outside the context of gaming people were doing some pretty fun things with it. A powerful sensor at a ridiculously cheap cost that you could use to create amazing things, provided of course your imagination wasn't weighed down by the latest dumb tech trend. That last statement is just as true now as it was when the Kinect originally came ou…

The tech was extremely impressive, but it always seemed like a classic case of a solution looking for a problem, which to me it's apparent biggest successes as a tool in universities/research groups bore out. Great for Human Computer Interaction type research, everything else not so much it seemed.

At any rate, the idea lives on in Apple's iPhone X in a much more practical application.

> Don't forget, smartwatches originated from a highly successful Kickstarter campaign.

This is a big stretch, in my opinion. I think we'd have worked out that a screen on our wrist with useful info is nice regardless of what happened on Kickstarter, this wasn't exactly an incredible discovery.

There had been countless fitness tracking watches that aren't really all that far removed from the public want from smart watches from Garmin et al long before Pebble tried their thing too. The barrier was arguably getting efficient SoCs that could last a day doing something useful far more than it was anything to do with crowd funding.

> Tech giants are very much capable of generating cash, but are damned by their inability to create gold.

This is getting a bit silly now.