While Microsoft might be the makers of the Kinect, that doesn’t mean they’ve created the best version of the motion controller for consumers – at least SoftKinetic seems to think so. At CES 2012, SoftKinetic stated that its “Time of Flight” technology used in its DepthSense DS311 camera is more responsive and accurate than the PrimeSense technology used in the Kinect. Time of Flight sends out a signal to a room and waits for it to bounce off of an object and back to the DS311, which then lets it draw a 3D map of the space in front of the camera in real time.Because of this method of detection, it allows the DS311 to be used more accurately than the Kinect, and can even work when users are as little as 10 inches away from the device (users normally have to be a minimum of 3-feet away from the Kinect for it to work). Time of Flight can also recognize two hands or a single finger raised, increasing the variety of gesture-based inputs that can be used with the camera.
The DepthSense DS311 will also come with a 3D gesture-control development system, lisu 3.0, for developers to create new apps using the technology. Which gives developers a complete package to start building apps with, but now we’ll just have to see if developers bite the hook because consumers aren’t going to purchase the DS311 if there isn’t any app support for it. After all, there’s no point in having great hardware and have nothing to use it for, right?
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