It was announced today that FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology), an organization founded by Segway inventor Dean Kamen to inspire young people’s interest and participation in science and technology, will include Microsoft’s Kinect for Xbox 360 technology as part of its standard robotics parts kit for the High School 2012 competition, thanks to Microsoft’s donation of 2,500 Kinect sensors. Using the Kinect technology will enable the competitors to control and interact with their robots with gestures, without the need to use a joystick, game controller, or other input device.

Since its release in November 2010, the Kinect sensor has given Microsoft quite a boost. In fact, during its first 60 days on the market, sales averaged 133,333 units per day, making it to the Guinness World Records list as the best-selling consumer electronics device of all time.

Since the Kinect for Xbox 360 was released, robotics developers have been using the system as an extremely low cost option for a very important robotic function:  autonomy.  For a robot to be autonomous, it must be able to create a digital map of its environment and understand its place within it. Tools have been created by roboticists over the years to accomplish this task, known as simultaneous localization and mapping, or SLAM.  But the sensors used to build such maps were either expensive and bulky or cheap and inaccurate. In fact, the day before the Kinect was released in November of 2010, it would have cost a robotics developer $15,000 for a sensor for SLAM. The release of the X-Box Kinect sensor gave roboticists this mapping capability for just $150.

In June 2011, Microsoft released Kinect for Windows Software Development Kit (SDK) in beta form free to educators and the research community, and in September announced a new beta release of Microsoft Robotics Developer Studio (RDS).  This new beta release includes skeleton tracking, speech, and the raw Kinect data stream for creating 3D mapping. At that time, Microsoft also announced its partnership with Parallax to release its first hardware robot platform, Eddie (Expandable Development Discs for Innovation and Experimentation).

Although the mapping technology is not available for the FIRST competitors at this time, it may be on the horizon. “The Kinect technology for mapping is an advanced technique beyond the expertise level of the FIRST audience,” according to Dr. Stathis Papaefstathiou, General Manager of Microsoft Robotics. “One of the areas that the Microsoft Robotics team is exploring is how to make technologies such as navigation available to a more broader audience (e.g. FIRST students), so they can build applications on top of these fundamental technologies.”

In addition to robotics, to further Kinect’s expansion, Microsoft also has announced that it is integrating its Kinect motion-based input technology and voice-controlled Bing search into its Xbox Live entertainment and gaming network. Nearly 40 TV and entertainment providers worldwide have signed on with Microsoft, including Bravo, Comcast, HBO GO, Verizon FiOS and Syfy in the U.S.; BBC in the U.K., Telefónica in Spain; Rogers On Demand in Canada; Televisa in Mexico; ZDF in Germany; and MediaSet in Italy.