MIX 2011: Interactive Panel: Kinect and Natural User Interfaces

The panel participants were Curtis Wong, Alex Kipman, Darren Bennett and Kristin Tolle.

Following is a brief summary of the questions and answers discussed in the panel.

Question: What do you think will be the trends in NUI in the future?

Answer by Bennett: NUI used anywhere, not just in games.

Answer by Kipman: Using NUI to create a world with less technology, i.e. there will be no need to learn technology, instead the computer will better understand us. Also, the rise of speech technology and the merging of different inputs to accomplish a goal. A world where a phrase like “show me more of that” can be actually work using the speech recognition and NUI.

Answer by Wong: Using the sensors to understand context and intent.

Question: How do you see: users with disabilities

Answer by Kipman: Kinect will let us solve this kind of problems in new innovative ways. The potential is magnificent.

Answer by Bennett: Kinect lets you create whatever you want. This can be used, for example, with Autistics, to promote coordination training using the Kinect sensor which is a much more engaging system.

Question: What is natural, when you have cultural differences (like depth people)?

Answer by Kristin: Sign language is very natural

Answer by Bennett: When more data will be gathered we will understand it better

Answer by Kipman: There is no “wrong” way to do things (consider driving..), in the future the world will shift from a view of right / wrong to a more probabilistic world.

Answer by Wong: NUI = Natural User Interactions (not interface)

Question: What is the business approach for Kinect SDK based applications?

Answer by Kipman: Out first focus was entertainment in Xbox, later we released the SDK to see what can be done. This is an ongoing journey, nothing more can be shared yet.

Question: What is the reaction to the open Kinect community and are you considering embracing this community?

Answer by Kristin: Of course, the SDK will be released as an open source project.

Question: Can we get the information of how to do things more ergonomically?

Answer by Kipman: Absolutely, there are already stuff like this. Of course, it depends on the needed experience. Some things should be fun and not fitness or ergonomic oriented.

Question: How about researching bug animals?

Answer by Kipman: This is why we released the SDK.

Question: The trend in electronics is usually minimization. what are you expecting in the Kinect future?

Answer by Bennett: The Kinect may be small enough to be portable and may have more range.

Answer by Wong: Similarly to the movie “Minority Report”, such sensors will be deployed everywhere. Of course, this bring the privacy question to the table.

Question: How similar will the Windows SDK be regarding to the Xbox SDK?

Answer by Kipman: They won’t be similar right away, eventually in the future they will be the same. the Xbox version is much more optimized. The APIs will be different since every platform has its own conventions.

Question: What can be tracked using the Kinect sensor?

Answer by Kipman: 20 joints in the Xbox edition. In the PC, the same, but not on the first day.

Question: Can you specify what hardware can we expect in the next versions of Kinect? better camera quality? other sensors?

Answer by Kipman: No. Can’t elaborate.

Question: What is next after entertainment?

Answer by Wong: World telescope is not a game, it shows data.

Answer by Bennett: entertainment is a good starting point, will see what’s next in the future.

Question: What was the hardest part while developing the Kinect sensor?

Answer by Bennett: The platform hardware kept changing.

Question: What type of apps are you expecting to see using the SDK?

Answer by Kipman: Exactly those I can’t imagine.

That’s it for now,
Arik Poznanski.