Microsoft teams up with Techstars to offer $20,000 to Kinect developers

SOFTWARE REDEVELOPER Microsoft is offering 10 firms $20,000 each to help develop Kinect applications.

Microsoft's Kinect technology has been praised for its innovative sensor array and Microsoft's willingness to provide a software development kit (SDK) for the unit. The firm has talked about moving Kinect beyond the Xbox and has partnered with Techstars to offer $200,000 in cash, secondary resources such as office space and web space and a mentor shared among 10 teams as part of its Kinect Accelerator programme.

Each Kinect Accelerator start-up will receive $20,000 seed money and the Techstars incubator will receive six per cent equity in the firm. Microsoft went to great lengths explaining that the shares will come with no special rights, no seat on the board and Microsoft will not retain intellectual property developed during the Kinect Accelerator programme.

Microsoft's Kinect Accelerator programme will run for three months, near the end of which the firm will arrange for a demonstration day. That showcase will see Microsoft executives and other investors look whether more money should be thrown at the start-ups.

Since Microsoft announced the official Kinect SDK it has been keen to push the technology into domains other than gaming. The idea is that industrial applications thought out by talented developers will allow Microsoft to license the Kinect hardware and, more importantly, the software, to third parties.

Microsoft said that applicants will have to relocate to Seattle for the duration of the Kinect Accelerator programme and the deadline for applications is 25 January 2012. µ