Kinect

Microsoft unveiled Kinect in 2010 as a bold experiment to remove the game controller from the living room entirely. This motion-sensing peripheral used RGB cameras and infrared projectors to track body movements and voice commands, allowing players to interact with games using only their hands and voices. The technology relied on structured light or time-of-flight calculations to map depth in real-time, creating a skeletal model of the user that drove gameplay mechanics. Originally unveiled at E3 2009 under the codename Project Natal, the device leveraged hardware from Israeli firm PrimeSense to achieve its tracking capabilities.

It launched on November 4, 2010, for the Xbox 360 and moved eight million units within its first two months, capturing the imagination of families and casual gamers who had never touched an Xbox before. Despite this initial surge, the ecosystem struggled to find deep roots among hardcore console enthusiasts who preferred traditional inputs. The second generation arrived with the Xbox One in 2013, featuring enhanced sensors but facing significant backlash when Microsoft mandated it as a required component.

Privacy concerns forced the company to drop that requirement shortly after launch, though the sensor remained bundled for some time until production ceased in October 2017. Beyond gaming, developers embraced the hardware for academic research and commercial applications, eventually leading to the Azure Kinect integration with cloud services before Microsoft ended support in late 2023. [edit]