Will Kinect for Windows be any good?

Microsoft has confirmed that it will bring out new hardware for Windows users to embrace its motion-based control platform Kinect. Great news? Perhaps not.

Redmond confirmed in a blog post this week that it is currently working on a new camera rig for the Kinect system.

Since announcing a few weeks ago that the Kinect for Windows commercial program will launch in early 2012, we've been asked whether there will also be new Kinect hardware especially for Windows. The answer is yes; building on the existing Kinect for Xbox 360 device, we have optimised certain hardware components and made firmware adjustments which better enable PC-centric scenarios.

I concede; the very idea of sorting your emails by swiping at the air in front of your computer sounds pretty awesome to me. The only problem I see with it is the fact that you're going to have to do that in front of other people and you're almost guaranteed to look like an idiot while doing it.

That's the issue, I find, with the newer, more disruptive ways of using your gadgets. Take voice control, for example: Voice Search on Android and even Siri on the iPhone 4S is a great way to get things done because it just understands you. Your friends are sure to be impressed by it at a party if they dig technology, but if you use it in an office full of other people trying to work, you're going to become very unpopular, very quickly, and it's likely to be the same with Kinect.

In our office, there's the low hum of general office noise like keyboards clacking, phones ringing and hushed conversations in various pockets around the place. Add to that environment someone waving their hands around wildly in front of their computer trying to get a PowerPoint presentation together using Kinect for Windows, then doing a Voice Search through Google Chrome and using Siri to text their partner — that person's co-workers are likely to get annoyed really fast.

While it's encouraging that Microsoft is working on a disruptive way of working, the company needs to find a way to bypass the silliness factor that the Kinect will bring with it.

Watch the video if you've ever wanted to throw things at Luke Hopewell.