The set top box for the ASUS WAVI Xtion has been approved by the FCC. The WAVI boxes stream data from a Windows PC to a TV over a 5GHz wireless connection. The set top boxes are designed to be used with the Xtion or Xtion Pro motion controller for hands-free media control, web browsing, and gaming.
In January Asus announced that it was partnering with PrimeSense to offer motion tracking to the computer, much as PrimeSense had helped Microsoft bring motion control to the Xbox 360. ASUS unwrapped the WAVI Xtion controller. The latest fruit of the ASUS/PrimeSense collaboration has been spotted on ASUS' website Xtion Pro Live.
ASUS and the Kinect's key technology creator PrimeSense today say they were developing a computer-specific motion controller. Much like the Xbox 360 add-on, the WAVI Xtion uses a dual-camera system that can gauge shape and depth and use it to control computer functions, especially in wide-open environments such as home theaters. Hands-free media and web browsing are the main focuses.
Two developers, John Simons and Joel Griffin Dodd, have just released free public beta code that will turn their Kinect peripherals into a Kinect Driven Media Control, nicknamed the KinEmote. The trick lets Windows users navigate the menus of their Boxee and XBMC media portals using just hand gestures. The code also supports other, OpenNI-compliant cameras as it's built around OpenNI and NITE middleware from PrimeSense, whose technology Kinect uses.
Apple's approach to negotiations may have cost it the technology that powers Microsoft's Kinect, an anecdote revealed today. The CEO of technology creator PrimeSense, Inon Beracha, explained during a flight that he had shopped the motion control technology first to Apple but that the company had asked him to sign 'crippling' legal deals and non-disclosure agreements. With other companies very interested at the time, there was no reason to agree to Apple's terms, Beracha told Cult of Mac's Leander Kahney.
Microsoft's patent application for its Kinect motion controller has recently gone public, giving everyone an inside look at how the technology works. The system uses software called PrimeSense to detect the user's movements thanks to a webcam. The camera detects human targets and compares them to a stored pattern of a human body model.
