Impressed by all those Microsoft Kinect Hacks out there, good news is you can now enjoy the same platform on your Windows machine - announced officially by Microsoft the "Kinect For Windows" will be available starting February 1, 2012.

The Guinness World Record holder for the "fastest selling consumer electronics device ever", Kinect handheld motion-sensing controller for XBOX360 got sold 18 million pieces past year. The new natural user interface system enables advanced human tracking, gesture recognition, voice control and so the user becomes the controller.

The new Kinect for Windows hardware and accompanying software will be available on February 1st, 2012 in 12 countries - United States, Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Mexico, New Zealand, Spain, United Kingdom for a suggested retail price of US $249.

In the official blog post making the announcement, the Kinect for Windows team quoted :

"With Kinect for Windows, we are investing in creating a platform that is optimized for scenarios beyond the living room, and delivering new software features on an ongoing basis, starting with “near mode” (see my earlier blog post for more about this). In addition to support for Windows 7 and the Windows 8 developer preview (desktop apps only), Kinect for Windows will also support gesture and voice on Windows Embedded-based devices and will enhance how data is captured and accessed within intelligent systems across manufacturing, retail and many more industries. We are building the Kinect for Windows platform in a way that will allow other companies to integrate Kinect into their offerings and we have invested in an approach that allows them to develop in ways that are dependable and scalable."