Asus May Be Readying A Line Of Laptops With Kinect-Based Controls [Kinect Makes The Jump To Prototype Asus Laptops, According To Reports, Allows For Motion Control To Perform Several Possible Functions]

Posted on TFTS by Steve Anderson on Friday, 27. January 2012 under: Computers & Computing, PCs, Notebooks, Netbooks & Tablets

Microsoft’s Kinect system has done some impressive things for gaming in the past, but what’s really gotten a lot of folks’ attention were the hacks that followed. While originally Microsoft was against it, seeing what the Kinect could do in the other hands left them changing their viewpoint. And now, we’re seeing one of the results of this stance: a prototype laptop from the folks at Asus that uses the Kinect as a control mechanism.

Next month is the big day for Kinect for Windows hardware, but the current word suggests that there are a pair of prototypes out at Asus that Microsoft was working with them on that contain a Kinect sensor built directly into the top of the laptop’s monitor, as well as including a set of LEDs along the monitor’s lowest edge.

Just what the Kinect addition to the Asus laptops will actually do is as yet unclear, but based on Asus’ previous venture into motion-control with hardware, the WAVI Xtion, it’s worthwhile to suggest that it will offer many the same functions as a mouse would, like the manipulation of windows and text on screen. Some have even suggested a means to automatically detect a user’s presence at the computer and then log them into the system.

Considering that there’s a beta version of Windows 8 set to land next month, as well as further rumors of laptops driven with Kinect, it’s safe to say that we’ll likely be hearing more about this topic before too much longer has passed. And it’s certainly one that I’d like to know more about myself, as the thought of closing windows and launching programs and the like with a wave of my hand rather than pointing and clicking does hold some appeal. If it gets to the point where I can pull off “laptop / Bing / X-Men” with my laptop, well, that’ll be just fine by me!

So what do you guys think about this one? Figure that we might be seeing a lot more motion control with our laptops in the not too distant future? Or will the early word about Kinect-driven laptops fail to pan out? No matter what you think, tell us all about it in the comments section below!