Microsoft has finally announced the eleven lucky fellows who made it to the finalists’ list for Kinect Accelerator. The finalists in this Kinect hacking showdown will be involved in an intensive program over the upcoming months. These finalists hail from a number of countries which include Canada, France, Germany and United States.
The eleven lucky ones will be involved in a program which includes an Xbox development kit, a handsome $20,000 to start development, Kinect for Windows sensor along with the accompanying SDK and finally, some office space and training to hatch their ideas into reality. According to a Microsoft official, ‘We were greatly impressed by the quality and breadth of applications we received, and are excited to share more about the finalists and the program in the coming weeks.’
Microsoft intends to conclude the accelerator with a de rigeur Demo Day which will show off the development that would be done by these finalists to the press as well as the investors. Some 500 applicants from 63 countries applied to the occasion and out of them, the following eleven ones stood out:
- Kimetric (stealth mode), Buenos Aires
- Ubi, Munich: You can turn a display into a 3D touchscreen with this plug-and-play gesture control tool
- Zebcare (stealth mode), Boston
- GestSure, Ontario: gestural, touchless interfaces for the operating room
- Freak’n Genius, Seattle. It can be used to animate things in real time with the help of Kinect.
- Jintronix, Montreal: a virtual system that makes it possible to enhance rehabilitation of such patients who suffer from motor-control disabilities
- Ikkos, Seattle: a system involving neuroplasticity and very efficient in letting one learn movement patterns quickly.
- Manctl, Lyon: A very economical, Kinect-based 3D scanner.
- Styku, Los Angeles: A body scanning application.
- NConnex, Hadley, Mass:
- Voxon, New York City: A 3D display for artists
Image courtesy TAKA.
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