One of the fathers of KINECTS is now shared by Google. Do you remember Johnny Chung Lee? No? Here is the reference for you. This man had hijacked a very clever way for the famous Nintendo Wiimote to create “touch” interfaces. Following his brilliant demonstration, Lee had been hired by Microsoft and has participated in Project Natal, in other words Kinect, visual interface for the Xbox 360 which has a very great success since its launch. We learned today that Lee was poached by Google. Johnny says on his blog have joined the team dedicated to a “special project”. Given the skills of man can imagine in the short term the launch of a Google TV KINECTS or longer-term adaptation of this kind of interface for PCs and Smartphones Chrome OS Android.
It is via his Twitter account that Johnny Chung Lee , who is one of the architects of the motion detection KINECTS the Xbox 360, said it had resigned from his position at Microsoft for a job at Google. Lee was described as a major contributor to the software algorithms that allow the system to properly follow KINECTS movements. He gave no reason for his choice. This is a big loss for Microsoft and a big win for Google. Kinect developer Johnny Chung Lee will now join as “Rapid Evaluator” at Google.
Lee left his position after getting Kinect reached 8 million units sold in just two months. Kinect, a system that lets you play videogames without physical controls on the Xbox 360 allowed Microsoft to stay on top of console sales charts in the U.S., ahead of the PlayStation 3 and Wii. Microsoft has sold more than 50 million Xbox 360 units sold worldwide; double the number it sold the first generation of the console.
Johnny Chung Lee the developer is famous enough now. He had tinkered with the Wii for example to create a multi-touch table. But what concerns us directly, he was hired by Microsoft to work on Project Natal is now called KINECTS .The ad man after working more than two and a half years on algorithms for tracking human KINECTS , decided to join Google . The decision was very difficult one and he still remembers the early stages of Project Natal (and even before it has a name). He wishes the Microsoft team good luck for the next Xbox and wait to see how the console will evolve. It’s a good console and a good platform; with lots of potential according to his believe.
Will Google be able to use his master brain? Only time will tell but the plans of the company.
