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The Azure Kinect Developer Package contains the identical depth digicam module within the HoloLens 2. | Supply: Microsoft
Microsoft has determined to finish manufacturing of its Azure Kinect Developer Package. The Package will nonetheless be obtainable by Microsoft’s companion ecosystem shifting ahead.
Current Azure Kinect Growth Package customers can proceed utilizing the product with out disruption. The Azure Kinect Growth Package SDK will proceed to be obtainable for obtain. Customers can even buy further gadgets from Microsoft till the tip of October 2023 or till provides final. Any gadgets offered will nonetheless have the usual restricted {hardware} guarantee.
In recent times, Microsoft has partnered with business leaders in depth sensing know-how to launch newer iterations of depth cameras constructed on high of Microsoft-developed iToF depth sensing.
Earlier this yr, Orbbec, a developer of 3D imaginative and prescient methods, introduced a set of merchandise developed in collaboration with Microsoft based mostly on its oblique time-of-flight (iToF) depth-sensing know-how that was dropped at market with HoloLens 2.
This suite of cameras combines Microsoft’s iToF know-how with Orbbec’s high-precision depth digicam design and in-house manufacturing capabilities and goals to broaden the applying and accessibility of high-performance 3D imaginative and prescient in logistics, robotics, manufacturing, retail, healthcare, and health industries.
Microsoft additionally has partnerships with Analog Gadgets, a semiconductor firm. Analog Gadgets has used Microsoft’s pixel and sensor know-how to construct its personal sensors and digicam modules, and it has since introduced two depth sensors, a depth digicam module, and a customized low-power Depth Picture Sign Processor (ISP) to market.
Moreover, Microsoft has partnered with SICK A.G., a world producer of sensors and sensor methods for industrial purposes. SICK A.G. is utilizing Microsoft’s know-how to construct depth cameras and its 3D time-of-flight security digicam.
Launched in 2010, the unique Microsoft Kinect shortly grew to become a go-to depth sensor for robotics purposes. It was as a supply for low-cost, high-quality depth sensing that, on the time, unlocked sensing capabilities that have been beforehand solely obtainable to firms and establishments that would afford multi-thousand greenback industrial 3D sensors. Co-developed by Israeli startup PrimeSense, the Kinect shortly discovered its manner into educational and industrial robotic environments, being employed for duties like impediment avoidance, object detection, and skeletal monitoring.
When Apple acquired PrimeSense for $360 million in November 2013, the unique Kinect grew to become historical past.