Kinect vs. Siri: Microsoft Not So Impressed With Siri

Tweet

Microsoft is gearing up with promoting Kinect for Windows as the next big revolution in computing user interfaces. Along with praise for motion-detecting technologies, a top-ranking Microsoft executive also criticized Siri as an example of hyping up an old technology to market a new product.

Forbes‘ Eric Savitz recently had an interview with Microsoft Chief Research and Strategy Officer Craig Mundie. The main topic of the interview was Microsoft’s new thrusts with Kinect as the next big thing in computer user interfaces. Mundie says the company is proud of its accomplishments with motion-sensing technologies, so far, and says that motion-detection is a more intuitive form of UI than other technologies.

As a follow up on alternative user interfaces, Mundie says that Microsoft’s vision is that motion-sensing technologies will not be viewed as an alternative user interface, but rather as the primary means of interfacing with a computer. He further criticized other technologies that have emerged of late, such as Apple’s Siri, which powers the iPhone 4S speech recognition engine. Mundie says it’s a classic example of a technology having existed long before, but only now being successfully marketed as a killer feature. In this case, Mundie says that the iPhone 4S only provides incremental upgrades over the iPhone 4, but Apple was able to successfully market Siri as the main upgrade. He gives credit to Apple, though, for being able to pull off such a marketing move.

Microsoft has recently released the Kinect for Windows SDK, initially focusing on the enthusiast and hobbyist market. A commercial version will be released in 2012, along with new Kinect hardware optimized for use with desktop and notebook computers. The new Kinect will have better sensitivity and motion-detecting capabilities even at close range. Microsoft is confident that this will open up opportunities for computer apps that will take advantage of motion-sensing capabilities, which goes far beyond Xbox 360 gaming.