Kinect is the controller-free gaming and entertainment experience, which was previously only on Xbox 360, but Microsoft announced plans to release a non-commercial Kinect for Windows Software Development Kit, or SDK, this spring.

The Kinect for Windows SDK is being developed and released by Microsoft Research (MSR) in collaboration with IEB.  It will be available this spring as a free download, and will give academic researchers and enthusiasts access to key pieces of the Kinect system—such as the audio technology, system application programming interfaces and direct control of the Kinect sensor itself.

The possibilities are endless.  Natural and intuitive technologies such as Kinect can be more than just a great platform for gaming and entertainment.  They open up enormous opportunities across a wide variety of scenarios, including addressing societal issues in areas such as healthcare and education.

Microsoft's Don Mattrick, Pesident of Interactive Entertainment Business (IEB) said, "Supporting this community and enabling creativity around natural user interfaces (NUI) is important to us, and our hope is that this SDK will ignite further creativity in an already vibrant ecosystem of enthusiasts. We are very excited by this announcement. Not only does it showcase our investment in this important technology trend, but it ensures that people have the tools they desire to revolutionize how people interact with technology."