VR-Zone

Following the recent release of Kinect for Windows, forms of further expansion in the differing ways Kinect can be used in Windows are starting to show face with the first major add-in being Kinect for Media Center.

Certainly, the ability to control Windows Media Center while chilling out on the sofa without the need to hold onto anything sounds both useful and downright cool. A beta version of the add-in was floating around last year, but now the final version is here and it's said to be a pretty smooth experience in all.

Kinect for Media Center allows you to use hand gestures and / or voice commands to control not only Media Center itself, but also any addins that run on it including Netflix, My Movies and Media Browser. The final version has been tweaked up to run flawlessly according to the developer and is quite customizable :-

Also implemented are advanced Voice features such that audio coming from Media Center will not interfere with your Voice Commands, nor will the playing audio accidently trigger any commands, within a reasonable volume level.  Also, there are commands that can temporarily turn off the gesture and voice recognition until you turn them back on.

There are also configuration tools to tweak the settings.  One such setting is the 'Dominant Hand' (left or right), as certain commands rely on this.  Other settings allow you to invert the horizontal, vertical, and pinch/zoom actions, as well as their sensitivity.

If you're keen to get it up and running in your lounge room, you can pick up the final version of Kinect for Media Center for US $6.99. And of course you'll need to have Kinect for Windows on hand, as the 360 version is said not to be supported at all (we'd highly appreciate a comment below if you find that the 360 version does in fact work with it).

For further details on Kinect for Media Center and / or to purchase and download it, head over to the official website here folks.