Evoluce's Win&I Turns Your Kinect Into A PC Controller

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It seems like every few days or so, somebody finds something new to do with a Kinect, and that something has almost nothing at all to do with video games. And now, it’s time for a whole new use as the folks at Evoluce bring out a way to turn your Kinect into a PC controller, the Win&I system.

Does anyone remember when the Kinect was supposed to be a video game controller? You know, just a video game controller, not the thing that helps practice surgery or make blind people see or anything like that? Sure, it was always supposed to have a few extra functions–like running your DVD player–but they just keep coming up with weird new non-gaming ways to use this device.

Basically, what Win&I does is it lets your Kinect interface with a Windows 7 PC–and yes, it must be Windows 7–to give you access to a variety of functions. There are two different versions of the Win&I system: the home edition which allows you to access Windows Media Center as well as your internet browsers and other applications for the home (which isn’t too far off from what it was already doing on your Xbox 360 to begin with) and the business edition, which opens up some more nifty options like a laser pointer mode on PowerPoint, meaning that you can, essentially, point at those third quarter sales figures, draw a circle around them, all with your finger, and have the screen react just as if you were pointing a laser pointer at it.

How much will you have to pay out to get your computer to recognize your hand as a mouse? Surprisingly little–Win&I starts at 19.90 Euros (a little over $28 in US dollars). Of course, the business edition probably costs somewhat more, though just how much more is unclear. Still though, this looks like a great way to handle your PC functions, and yet another great use for Kinect.