Asus working on Kinect laptop, compatible with Windows 8 | Hacker News Reader

Asus working on Kinect laptop, compatible with Windows 8

winbeta.org

32 pointsViolentJason13 comments

So the panopticon gains new eyes... Is it just me that covers my laptop's webcam during use? (I use tape+microfiber so I can use the webcam by unpeeling for the rare times I need it)

No. You're not the only one and, contrary to what detractors will say, it's far from paranoid. As an example- a friend of mine was wondering why it would occasionally catch his webcam light flash. I dug around and found Prey installed, clearly taking shots at regular intervals.

i use a bandaid with one side of the sticky tab cut off. it allows the padded part to fall in front of the camera when i open the laptop and if placed carefully can be flipped up when the camera is needed.

i have an olpc and the camera and microphone on that cannot be activated without turning on the leds beside them. wish this idea was more prevalent.

ASUS is a direct licensee from PrimeSense for their depth sensing technology for the ASUS Xtion/Xtion Pro. I wonder whether there's a difference between that hardware and the Kinect-branded system that's going into this laptop.

http://us.estore.asus.com/index.php?l=product_detail&p=3...

The Xtion is depth sensing only - a Kinect branded sensor would likely have both RGB and depth, like the other Kinects.

The Xtion Pro Live for $200 is depth, RGB, and audio. The Xtion Pro for $150 is depth only.

Kinect would work well on large multi-display systems. I think the laptop is too small of a device for the motion capture to be effective.

The new Kinect hardware has a "near mode" and there's been discussions of adding upper body skeleton tracking, as well as gesture recognition.

Anyone have any insight to why the article says the Kinect for Windows will be $250 vs the $150 regular prices of Kinect for the XBox?

Because MS subsidizes the Kinect for XBox and makes back that money whenever the buyer buys Kinect games. MS gets no such cut of Windows programs that's why the real hardware cost is reflected.

I have a hard time believing that they're subsidizing it by a full $100. The ASUS Xtion Pro Live sells for $200, presumably at a profit, and the only feature difference I can see between that and the Kinect is that the Kinect has two more microphones and built-in AEC. On the other hand, maybe two mics and audio processing really does add $50 to the cost.

MS also has to fund the Kinect SDK team and Microsoft Research that develops new applications for the Kinect.

Examples include Kinect Fusion (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=quGhaggn3cQ) and the Holodesk (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JHL5tJ9ja_w).

If I had to guess, I would say it's because early adopters are willing to pay more for novelty. Then 6 months later it allows retailers to put it "on sale" for the same price as the regular Kinect.

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