14 DAY TRIAL // The development team in charge of hardware at Microsoft suggests that the company is aiming to increase exposure for the Xbox One Kinect motion tracking system in the coming year, and a senior software engineer position is at the moment open for all those who are interested in being part of the process.
A new job ad on the official career section of the company site explains that ambiguity and risk will be associated with the position.
It adds, “If you’re passionate about the potential for Kinect to continue to revolutionize entertainment and are a seasoned software engineer with the skills to prototype and build the future of premium Kinect-powered experiences, we have a growing team of talented people who want to take entertainment into the future.”
Microsoft says that Kinect’s future will involve mixing different technologies in order to create a new take on entertainment.
The job ad also says that those who get hired will learn more about machine vision, data mining, Artificial Intelligence, voice recognition, and embedded systems.
The tone suggests that the focus for the current Kinect iteration on the Xbox One is on entertainment, and actual video game projects will be marginal.
Kinect was big when the new console was announced
When Microsoft first confirmed the existence of the Xbox One, motion tracking was one of the main innovations it emphasized.
The company wanted to use Kinect in order to control the interface of the platform and there was talk of a variety of ways to integrate it with major video game releases, from voice commands to more traditional gestures.
But once the Xbox One was launched, Kinect proved to be a liability because it increased the retail price, one of the major reasons that allowed the PlayStation 4 from Sony to take an early lead in sales.
Since then, Microsoft has dropped the device from the core package and has managed to close the sales gap a little by introducing a holiday price cut.
It’s unclear how the company wants to reconcile the new Kinect-focused project for which it is hiring with the fact that only a fraction of those who own its home console will actually be able to use gestures and voice commands in the future.
