New Director, Same Direction: the Momentum Continues with Kinect for Windows

Almost two years ago, Microsoft announced its intent to take Kinect beyond gaming and make it possible for developers and businesses to innovate with Kinect on computers. The Kinect for Windows team was born.

Shortly after that, I joined the team to oversee Program Management, and over the past year, we’ve shipped the Kinect for Windows sensor as well as multiple updates to the Kinect for Windows software development kit (SDK). Throughout it all, Craig Eisler has been leading our business.

This month, Craig is moving on to do other important work at Microsoft, and I am stepping in to lead the Kinect for Windows team. I am excited to maintain the amazing momentum we’ve seen in industries like healthcare, retail, education, and automotive. There have been more than 500,000 downloads of our free SDK, and the Kinect for Windows sensor can be purchased in 39 regions today.

Such rapid growth would not have been possible without the community embracing the technology. Thanks to all of you—business leaders, technical leaders, creative visionaries, and developers—Kinect for Windows has been deployed across the globe. The community is developing new ways for consumers to shop for clothing and accessories, interesting digital signage that delights and inspires customers, remote monitoring tools that make physical therapy easier, more immersive training and simulation applications across multiple industries, and touch-free computing tools that enable surgeons to view patient information without having to leave the operating room. The list goes on and on…and the list is growing every day.

We launched Kinect for Windows nearly one year ago—pioneering a commercial technology category that didn’t previously exist. I look forward to continuing to be at the forefront of touch-free computing and helping our partners develop innovative solutions that take the natural user interface vision even further. We’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: this is just the beginning. I’m thrilled to continue the great foundational work we did in 2012 and look forward to a very productive 2013.

Bob Heddle
Director, Kinect for Windows