Kinect is a line of motion sensing input devices produced by Microsoft and first released in 2010. The technology includes a set of hardware originally developed by PrimeSense, incorporating RGB cameras, infrared projectors and detectors that mapped depth through either structured light or time of flight calculations, and a microphone array, along with software and artificial intelligence from Microsoft to allow the device to perform real-time gesture recognition, speech recognition and body skeletal detection for up to four people, among other capabilities. This enables Kinect to be used as a hands-free natural user interface device to interact with a computer system. Kinect is a peripheral that sits atop the user's display similar to a webcam.
