What's Up with CodePlex?

Last week we announced the release of the source code of 22 Kinect for Windows sample applications.  The developer response has been terrific and much larger than we expected.

Some publications claimed we had open sourced “all of the code for Kinect” or the “core code of Kinect”.  Neither of these is true.  We released source code for most of our sample applications.  It’s important to understand that sample code is not the same as core code.  The purpose of the sample applications is to give developers examples of how to use particular APIs and/or to give a good starting point for a new application.  Samples do use the core APIs and Kinect for Windows platform but we have not changed anything about the licensing of those underlying components.

The samples we’ve released show how to do things like get raw infrared data from the sensor, build an interactive kiosk that changes content when a person is detected, and track a person’s facial movements.  The samples are one of the many areas in which we are investing to make it easy for new and seasoned developers alike to build applications using Kinect for Windows.

It was not our intention for our announcement to be misinterpreted.  It’s evident in the comments of many posts that readers understood the distinction.  It’s also been great to see the debate & discussions (I’m looking at you, Reddit :-).

We are following up with some publications to clarify our announcement and to request they update their posts.

Ben

@benlower | kinectninja@microsoft.com | mobile:  +1 (206) 659-NINJA (6465)

Kinect for Windows:  @KinectWindows