The Microsoft^® Accelerator for Kinect

The Kinect Accelerator is now in session.

Congratulations to the eleven startups participating in Kinect Accelerator 2012, and thank you to all of the startups who submitted applications. We were greatly impressed by the quality and breadth of applications we received, and are excited to share more about the finalists and the program in the coming weeks. Stay up-to-date on the Kinect Accelerator here at www.kinectaccelerator.com. We’ll be featuring videos, photos, blogs and tweets from the Kinect Accelerator in action here, on twitter and on Facebook.

In the beginning there was Kinect:

Over a year ago, Microsoft launched the Kinect for Xbox which soon became the fastest selling consumer device in history. The Kinect for Xbox was positioned as a new kind of game controller, leveraging voice commands, gesture control, skeleton tracking and a depth sensor to literally put you in the game. But soon, hobbyists were using the Kinect to control model airplanes, fight Jedi sword battles and play music. The Kinect was not just for games anymore. Microsoft responded with the release of the Kinect for Windows in February 2012, and allowed any application to leverage the Kinect. Now, the dreams of what you could do with Kinect could become the latest wave of entrepreneurial innovation with startups that are building businesses around Kinect.

And then there was the Kinect Accelerator:

Beyond transforming the way you play games and experience entertainment, Kinect is being used in creative new ways from applications in healthcare, education, the arts and more. We will be combining the ingenuity of these eleven startups, the best of the Kinect technology, other Microsoft technologies such as Windows Azure and the mentor driven TechStars approach to foster a new generation of businesses. The Kinect Accelerator is a Microsoft Accelerator powered by TechStars, leveraging the successful TechStars model and bringing a talented team to run this accelerator for Microsoft.

On November 18th, 2011, the Kinect Accelerator started taking applications, and the response was overwhelming. The Kinect Accelerator team, led by Dave Malcolm, the Managing Director from TechStars, and Microsoft team members from Kinect for Xbox, Kinect for Windows, Microsoft Studios and the Emerging Business Team, worked through 500 applications to narrow down to 11 for participation. Companies were proposed in gaming, entertainment, healthcare, retail, business, security, robotics and education.