I am not one for making outright predictions, especially when it comes to technology. In fact I am more likely to take shots at what end up being ridiculous predictions based on personal biases.

However there is a technology available today that I truly believe will be the bust out technology of 2011 and beyond. I am of course talking about Microsoft’s Kinect accessory for the Xbox 360 gaming console. Mark ‘Rizzn’ Hopkins and I talked about it in yesterday’s Daily Brief and like him I had a gut feeling that when we first started hearing about Project Natal that we were hearing about the future.

I also remember at the time that a lot of tech pundits either discounted the project altogether or declared it would be just another failure for Microsoft. Then on November 4, 2010 – not even a full two months ago – Microsoft released the Xbox 360 and Kinect bundle; and when we look back in our tech history that day will be a significant turning point.

Remember this is a technology that has only been publicly available for less than two month and yet it is already having an impact in ways that I don’t believe even Microsoft could have foreseen. Within days on the edge developers were hard at work on their new toy figuring out how they could talk with the Kinect and then make it do things that had nothing to do with gaming.

Here at WinExtra we’ve been reporting on many of the things that have been done since that breakthrough day as have our friends over at SiliconAngle. Like the team over there I know we are only seeing the tip of the revolutionary changes coming. From real-time robotic telepresence, to aiding in people learning the American Sign Language, to capturing live 3D action, and yes even a Minority Report type user interface the changes are only just beginning.

In light of all that has happened so far, and I hate to keep repeating this but we are only weeks into developers being able to work their hacking magic; not to mention the fact that this is still just a first generation device. Even though there were fears in the first few days that Microsoft was going to try and stop this community effort they have in fact welcomed the work being done by developers.

So if so much can be achieved with a first generation device one has to wonder what the possibilities will be when Microsoft ships follow-up versions of Kinect. If the cutting edge developers can do what they have done so far what will we see when the rest of the developer community – across all platforms – will be able to do based on this foundation.

One has to wonder if Microsoft realized the impact that Kinect would have beyond the intended gaming platform. Did they realize the gift that they were bringing to the future of computers?

November 4, 2010 changed technology and when we look back Microsoft may be remembered more for this one thing than anything else.

We have only just started getting kinectified.

Related posts:

  1. Bounty paid, Kinect driver opened up, Microsoft pissy
  2. Kinect Could Reinvent Educational Gaming
  3. And the Kinect Hits keep coming: Chinese Hacker Connects OpenNI Kinect Drivers with 3ds Max
  4. Microsoft counting down the days until Kinect launches
  5. Hackers 1 – Kinect 0 … Kinect motor control hacked [Video]