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Evoluce sends a gesture of its own to Microsoft's Kinect SDK
German tech company Evoluce loves messing around with Microsoft's toys and sales plans, playing with the Kinect to create user-friendly, gesture-based interfaces for the home and office. Now, Evoluce's Kinect SDK is available for download, rivaling Microsoft's own SDK to be released in early 2012, and offering devs a bit of old-fashioned market competition. Evoluce plans to release a commercial version of its dev kit "at a later date." We're all for innovating existing hardware, but to truly create the future we think it helps to look even further into the realms of almost-science-fiction and M. Night Shyamalan movies.
Evoluce Kinect SDK hits the web, gives you an alternative to Microsoft's wares
If you think Microsoft should have all the SDK fun, just cause the company created the Kinect? Well, Evoluce clearly disagrees. The company behind Win & I and the Evoluce ONE 47-inch multitouch PC is offering devs its own tools for creating apps and interfaces that take advantage of the Kinect on Windows 7. The SDK is a free download, but it plans to release a commercial version sometime in the future -- taking the battle straight to the boys in Redmond. Check out the video and PR after the break.
Evoluce releases Kinect-based 'Win & I' gesture interface for Windows 7
We've already seen Evoluce toy around with using a Kinect to control Windows, but it's now taken things one step further with its new "Win & I" software, which promises to let anyone do the same with minimal effort. That comes in both a home edition that offers gesture controls for Windows 7 itself, plus Media Center and other applications (which could be particularly handy for a home theater), as well as a business edition that apparently adds some extra controls specifically tailored to Microsoft Office, and PowerPoint in particular. Head on past the break for a quick video demonstration, and hit up the link below to snag the software if you're interested -- the home edition runs €20, or just under $30 (Kinect not included, obviously). Update: Well, it looks like Evoluce already has a bit of competition. Upstart company So Touch has now also released its Air Presenter software that will let you liven up your next presentation with more gesturing and hand-waving than usual.
Evoluce announces 46-inch display with built-in 3D sensors
We've already seen Evoluce toy around with Kinect hacks and multitouch displays, and it's now inevitably managed to combine the two. The company has just announced its new I-Voluce display, which fuses a standard 46-inch LCD with some integrated "3D depth sensing technology" that's apparently not simply a repurposed Kinect -- exact details on it are light, but it will apparently work from a distance of up to 13 feet, and it relies on Windows 7 for an OS. That's obviously not designed for home use, but Evoluce does see plenty of potential for the displays in public spaces like museums, as well as in office and education environments. For those that prefer a more hands-on approach, Evoluce also has an updated version of its Surface-style multitouch table, the Evoluce Two, which also packs 3D depth sensing technology and can accommodate up to six users simultaneously. Of course, neither exactly come cheap -- look for prices to start at €3,995, or about $5,600.
German software devs planning Kinect SDK release for PC
We've highlighted German developer Evoluce before for its impressive Kinect hacks, both to control Windows 7 applications and command soldiers in Ubisoft's RUSE. This time, Evoluce has announced plans to empower more hacks through the release of its software development kit for PC. The "3D-Sensing Custom Software for Kinect" -- which could, admittedly, use a better name -- promises to provide would-be devs with "core features," such as "3D virtual reality experience with full-body avatars" and "touch-free user interfaces." A region-restricted video demonstration of the SDK is available to German viewers on Prosieben.de, but the rest of us are going to have to wait until Evoluce actually releases its kit for a chance to check it out. But who knows -- by that time, Microsoft may have gotten its own, rumored Kinect SDK together. Hurry Evoluce!
Kinect Hacks: RUSE with gesture controls
At first, this video appears to show the Xbox 360 RTS R.U.S.E controlled using Kinect, but it's actually a ... clever deception: Evoluce's Wolfgang Herfurtner applied a Kinect interface to the PC version of R.U.S.E., allowing the in-game cursor to be controlled with motions. While there's a certain feeling of power, we're sure, that comes from managing an entire battlefield with sweeping hand movements, this appears to be a case in which being the controller is somewhat more unwieldy than being the person with a controller in hand. But while it looks to be an awkward replacement for the traditional mouse and keyboard on PC, it's a potential proof of concept for an RTS interface for consoles.
Kinect hacks: Use Kinect to navigate the web, resize koalas
A new Kinect hack -- dubbed "DepthJS" -- allows Microsoft's frequently repurposed camera to interact with a web browser via Javascript. Its creators, from the MIT Media Lab Fluid Interfaces Group, envision "all sorts of applications that run in the browser," and demonstrate fairly simple website navigation in their video (embedded after break). Making a fist enables selection, a semi-dismissive swatting motion allows scrolling, and giving it the finger automatically posts a hateful comment on a game review you didn't agree with. (Okay, that last thing isn't true.) Meanwhile, Evoluce, a Munich-based software company, has shown Microsoft Windows 7 applications being controlled through Kinect. The associated video shows multi-touch support, with the user being able to zoom in on images or draw using two hands at once. It also makes resizing pictures of adorable animals very easy, which should come in handy for your bandwidth-limited nature blog.
Kinect hacks let you control a web browser and Windows 7 using only The Force (updated)
Hacking the Xbox 360 Kinect is all about baby steps on the way to what could ultimately amount to some pretty useful homebrew. Here's a good example cooked up by some kids at the MIT Media Lab Fluid Interfaces Group attempting to redefine the human-machine interactive experience. DepthJS is a system that makes Javascript talk to Microsoft's Kinect in order to navigate web pages, among other things. Remember, it's not that making wild, arm-waving gestures is the best way to navigate a web site, it's just a demonstration that you can. Let's hope that the hacking community picks up the work and evolves it into a multitouch remote control plugin for our home theater PCs. Boxee, maybe you can lend a hand? Update: If you're willing to step outside of the developer-friendly borders of open-source software then you'll want to check out Evoluce's gesture solution based on the company's Multitouch Input Management (MIM) driver for Kinect. The most impressive part is its support for simultaneous multitouch and multiuser control of applications (including those using Flash and Java) running on a Windows 7 PC. Evoluce promises to release software "soon" to bridge Kinect and Windows 7. Until then be sure to check both of the impressive videos after the break. [Thanks, Leakcim13]
Evoluce 47-inch HD multitouch display gets off-screen gesture control
Evoluce, the manufacturers of that mammoth 47-inch full HD touchscreen, are out of control! Apparently, they've decided that unlimited simultaneous touch inputs (and thus unlimited simultaneous phalanges) was not enough, so they've gone an' added gesture support -- up to half a meter from the device. Apparently this bad boy supports Windows 7, although if you want your interface du jour to put the "unlimited" in "multitouch" you'll most likely have to roll your own. Interested? Wealthy? Check out some righteous video and PR after the break.
Evoluce ONE gives you 47 inches of multitouch surface to play with (video)
We're kind of late to this party, but better late than never, right? At the end of last month, German company Evoluce announced its 47-inch multitouch display, touting Full HD (or 1920 x 1080) resolution and "Integrated-Through-Screen-Optics," which allow it to recognize an unlimited number of simultaneous inputs. The ONE also features haptic feedback and is compatible with Windows 7's multitouch features right out of the box, with support for some "other OS" also planned. If you're thinking this looks like a legit competitor to Microsoft's Surface, well, you'd be right. We've got the full PR for you after the break, as well as hands-on video of the (relatively) new device.
