Microsoft forms a team to squeeze the full potential of Kinect and continue to innovate on Xbox

We all know that since Kinect was no longer included as a mandatory accessory for the Xbox One, this sensor has lost a lot of prominence both among both users and developers, causing there to be very few releases that take advantage of it (which is a shame considering all the technology and innovation that's packed into this device ).

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However, that doesn&39;t mean Microsoft doesn&39;t have future plans for Kinect On the contrary, the company appears to be assembling a team of technicians and developers specifically charged with building new experiences for the console under the eaves of this motion sensor."

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This is revealed in a job announcement published by the company, where computer engineers are invited to apply to be part of this new working group dedicated to creating the future of entertainment from Kinect."

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Of course, the work of this team will not be limited to what Kinect can offer, but will be a little broader than that. Redmond&39;s vision is to establish itself as a edge development group that is constantly on the lookout for new ideas that can be implemented on Xbox. "

To carry out these innovations, we will venture into the fields of virtual reality, data mining, artificial intelligence and other technologies And because this is a team that is constantly coming up with new ideas, everyone on the team will be required to sign confidentiality agreements to prevent the technologies Redmond is working on from leaking ahead of time.

Certainly everything looks very interesting and promising. We will have to see how long it takes this group to launch their first idea on the market (I would bet on a period of a couple of years), although in the same job announcement applicants are warned that many of the ideas that are born in the team will never see the light of day, since they want a brainstorming process to exist, from which the most commercially viable proposals are then selected.

Renewed and cross-platform avatars

Another area where Microsoft wants to innovate is the Xbox Live user avatars This feature was introduced in 2008 in order to to deliver a more personalized experience in certain games, or when using Xbox Live social features, and was later incorporated into the Windows Phone and Windows 8 Games apps as well.

However, in terms of design and functionality, Xbox avatars haven't changed much since their inception, which is why Redmond wants to give them a second life , adapting them for the next-gen and for the era of Mobile first, Cloud first™ .

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To achieve this, they are looking to hire designers and programmers to participate in the development process of avatars 2.0. They would be part of a team tasked with creating a new rendering engine for avatars, along with a new design and set of features that puts an emphasis on achieving a better experience. cross-platform, that works well on console, tablets, PCs, Windows Phone, Android and iOS."

There is currently no official information on when the next generation of Xbox Live avatars are planned to be released, but since it is not such a complex feature it is unlikely that the wait will be too long weather.

Via | Winbeta, Microsoft-News