The Kinect for Windows 1.5 developer kit will be available in late May, Microsoft’s Craig Eisler, General Manager, Kinect for Windows, announced recently via blog post.
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SDK 1.5 also adds four new languages for speech recognition: French, Spanish, Italian and Japanese. Language packs are also on the way. These will improve speech recognition based on how languages are spoken in different regions, for instance British English or Australian English as opposed to American English.
Furthermore, Kinect for Windows will be launching in an additional 19 countries in between May and June. It will arrive in Hong Kong, South Korea, and Taiwan in late May. Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Denmark, Finland, India, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, South Africa, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Arab Emirates can expect to see the release by June.
Eisler also noted that a future blog post will go into more detail about Microsoft’s Kinect for Windows plans and how the 10-joint tracking system will work.