Kinect’s New Multitouch Tricks Let You Pinch Thin Air To Zoom


Kinect has already received its fair share of excited attention from developers, but Microsoft is still exploring its limits too. It has managed to make it respond to mid-air, multitouch gestures.

Microsoft engineers have finally got the device to recognise if your hand is open or closed, in turn allowing it to respond to gestures that you might use on a multitouch trackpad. It’s incredibly fine-grained detail from a cheap piece of kit.

Still, that makes the fact that gestures like pinch-to-zoom are now useable via Kinect all the more impressive. It’s not 100 per cent clear if this uses the old or — rumoured — new device, nor when it might make it out into the wild, but it’s nice to know that it’s possible and waiting for us. [YouTube via Engadget]


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