The Azure Kinect DK is a discontinued developer kit and PC peripheral which employs the use of

artificial intelligence Artificial intelligence (AI) is the capability of computer, computational systems to perform tasks typically associated with human intelligence, such as learning, reasoning, problem-solving, perception, and decision-making. It is a field of re ...

sensors for

computer vision Computer vision tasks include methods for image sensor, acquiring, Image processing, processing, Image analysis, analyzing, and understanding digital images, and extraction of high-dimensional data from the real world in order to produce numerical ...

and speech models, and is connected to the

Microsoft Azure Microsoft Azure, or just Azure ( /ˈæʒər, ˈeɪʒər/ ''AZH-ər, AY-zhər'', UK also /ˈæzjʊər, ˈeɪzjʊər/ ''AZ-ure, AY-zure''), is the cloud computing platform developed by Microsoft. It has management, access and development of ...

cloud In meteorology, a cloud is an aerosol consisting of a visible mass of miniature liquid droplets, frozen crystals, or other particles, suspended in the atmosphere of a planetary body or similar space. Water or various other chemicals may ...

. It is the successor to the

Microsoft Kinect Kinect is a discontinued line of motion sensing input devices produced by Microsoft and first released in 2010. The devices generally contain RGB cameras, and infrared projectors and detectors that map depth through either structured light o ...

line of sensors. The kit includes a 12 megapixel RGB camera supplemented by 1 megapixel- depth camera for body tracking, a 360-degree seven-microphone array and an orientation sensor. The sensor is based on the depth sensor presented during 2018 ISSCC. While the previous iterations of Microsoft's Kinect primarily focused on gaming, this device is targeted towards other markets such as

logistics Logistics is the part of supply chain management that deals with the efficient forward and reverse flow of goods, services, and related information from the point of origin to the Consumption (economics), point of consumption according to the ...

robotics Robotics is the interdisciplinary study and practice of the design, construction, operation, and use of robots. Within mechanical engineering, robotics is the design and construction of the physical structures of robots, while in computer s ...

health care Health care, or healthcare, is the improvement or maintenance of health via the preventive healthcare, prevention, diagnosis, therapy, treatment, wikt:amelioration, amelioration or cure of disease, illness, injury, and other disability, physic ...

, and

retail Retail is the sale of goods and services to consumers, in contrast to wholesaling, which is the sale to business or institutional customers. A retailer purchases goods in large quantities from manufacturers, directly or through a wholes ...

. With the kit, developers can create applications connected to Microsoft's cloud and AI technologies. The Azure Kinect is used in volumetric capture workflows through the use of software tools that can connect many Azure Kinects into one volumetric capture rig, allowing users to create interactive virtual reality experiences with human performances. The Azure Kinect was announced on February 24, 2019, in Barcelona at the MWC. It was released in the US in March 2020, and in the UK, Germany, and Japan in April 2020. Microsoft announced that the Azure Kinect hardware kit would be discontinued in October 2023, and referred users to third party suppliers for spare parts.

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External links

* {{Microsoft Microsoft video game hardware Microsoft cloud services Products and services discontinued in 2023 Discontinued Microsoft products