Microsoft boosts Kinect initiatives with Microsoft Accelerator

Looks to find new business applications with Kinect.

Last April, eleven companies of different countries traveled to Seattle to participate in a three-month program with the goal of developing a product and a business plan using Kinect technology in fields as diverse as health, sports, entertainment and 3D modeling. Yesterday, Microsoft released the first completed program called Accelerator for Kinect, with the participation by companies of their applications and business plans in an event at Microsoft for a wide audience of investors to find financing for Kinect projects.

The Microsoft Accelerator for Kinect, driven by TechStars in collaboration with Microsoft BizSpark provides entrepreneurs, engineers and innovators the opportunity to develop new business applications to improve their daily activities and transform industries. Of the nearly 500 applications that Microsoft received for part of the project, only eleven teams were selected to participate in Accelerator.

This is the first series of programs organized by Microsoft to provide business startups and technical guidance to enable them to launch successful businesses. Members of this first Accelerator promotion have helped propel Kinect 360 and Kinect for Windows, a platform that combines a Kinect sensor for Windows, a software development kit and a business license for both companies and developers to create a new types of Windows applications that use movement, gestures and voice.

The Microsoft Accelerator program will offer startups in the fall for Windows based-Azure or in the cloud.

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