A Pocket Full Kinect

Hi guys,

maybe it’s not fair to always call a depth-sensing system Kinect or Kinect-style. But since Microsoft pushed it big time it’s just the famous buzz word. Sounds better than structured IR-light-encoding technology or such. Anyway, PrimeSense (who actually licensed their technology for Kinect) has come up with a newer version of their 3D-sensing technology: smaller and slimmer. They announced their new chip, tagged “Capri” last year, but now a short live demo from GDC 2013 (Game Developers Conference) hit the internet.

Basically a “coming soon” release could mean, that our tablets and smartphones could get depth-sensing abilities! This is going to be a big deal for all AR applications that augment near-distanced objects – allowing for correct occlusions. Far away objects (especially outdoors) are still a no-go, though.

Minority Report-styled Interaction (without the IR gloves though) still seems farther away for phones, since their Capri chip would probably point away from the user (as seen in the prototype). This would not allow gesture interaction directly. But having these small sensors ready sure will lead to further developments.

Let’s take a look at the conference capture:

Enjoy!