New job listings on Microsoft’s site indicate that the publisher may be gearing up development on the next generation of Kinect. According to a listing for a software development engineer, “the team that shipped Kinect for Xbox 360” is seeking a candidate to work on “the future of Natural User Input.”More specifically, the listing later refers to the fact that “The Xbox Platform Team is gearing up towards the next generation of Natural User Interface (NUI) technologies.” The listing also refers to “rapid prototyping” and that a “successful candidate must be able to come up to speed with new technologies.”
A separate listing for a senior electronic engineer specifies that it’s looking for a candidate who would be responsible “for designing, building and delivering the devices and the innovative solution for Xbox and various future NUI applications.” It also includes its mission statement to “re-invent entertainment, led from the living room, powered by the cloud, across multiple screens and best experienced on our devices.”
The listings were posted in late June and early July, and fit in with rumors we previously heard about Microsoft working on an improved Kinect sensor. A Microsoft patent that emerged last month also hinted at a new Kinect sensor that could capture depth by using infrared light “to determine a physical distance from the capture device to a particular location on the targets or objects in the scene.” Previous rumors also suggested that the next Kinect will be accurate enough to read lips.
We know that Microsoft is likely working on the next-generation Xbox, as developers told us in an anonymous survey that the next generation of consoles will begin in 2013. We’ve also seen other Microsoft job listings refer to a new system, including a listing from Rare about next-gen games and a listing that implied a next-gen Halo is already in the works.
We’ve reached out to Microsoft about the job listings and will update this story with any comment we receive.
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