'Live Park' is World's First 4D Avatar Playground

You can go ahead and file this one in the "cool shit other countires have that we don't" folder. A new Kinect powered theme park has opened in South Korea, and it looks awesome. Claiming to be the world's first 4D avatar theme park, Live Park 4D offers 65 attractions that utilize 3D video, holograms and augmented reality tech to tell a cohesive story. Microsoft Kinect sesors track the movements of participants, while RFID wristbands identify who is where. This allows for a realistic video game experience, taking place in an interactive projection square spanning over 150m. I don't fully understand how it all works, or what the end result is, but I do know that I want it. This is the closest thing to the holodeck I've ever seen.

(via Joystiq)

Kinect Coming to Windows on February 1

Microsoft's surprisingly successful motion sensing peripheral, Kinect, is making the official jump to the Windows OS next month. Microsoft announced at their CES keynote that starting Februrary 1st, you'll be able to pick up a Kinect for Windows sensor for $249.99 US. "Why the price discrepancy from the Xbox version?" - you may ask. Since the Windows Kinect SDK was released last June, the Xbox version of the product has worked fine for industrious early adopters of Kinect programming. This new Windows version comes with a change in licensing that permits it to be used for commercial applications. This will be the Kinect to pick up for potential developers and businesses. Microsoft claims that the Xbox version of Kinect is $100 cheaper because it is subsidized by the extra income generated on selling Kinect enabled games. Regardless of how much it costs, I'm happy that Microsoft is pushing towards Kinect/PC integration in a big way. Kinect is a very versatile and innovative product, and gaming only scratches the surface of what it can accomplish. Microsoft also announced that 66 million Xbox 360s have been sold to date, as well as 18 million Kinects.

(via Major Nelson)

Kinect at the Rose Bowl Parade

At yesterday's historical "Tournament of Roses" parade in Pasadena, California, Xbox and Kinect showed off a float of their own. Here's a pretty darn impressive timelapse video of the construction of the float, which took place from October 26 - December 2. I think I'd prefer that Microsoft spent their money on something else, maybe like making half decent Kinect games. Sorry, I didn't mean to troll; watch the video.