Microsoft is reportedly in the early stages of bringing Kinect to TV's , first it was consoles then PC's now reportedly TV's. While Microsoft is clearly not licensing Kinect technology to Sony's PlayStation divisions the Daily is reporting that they are working with Sony's struggling TV division to provide them with Kinect based technology.

"Microsoft is said to be in the early stages of licensing its Kinect technology to television hardware manufacturers like Vizio and Sony."

Right now The Daily is the only source I have heard of reporting Kinect coming to Sony TV's (Originally, a lot are reporting on The Daily's story but so far it is just The Daily claiming to it being real). Without verification from Microsoft and Sony this remains unofficial. The Daily goes on to describe how Kinect would likely work on TV's in competition with Apple TV and Google TV. "Kinect-enabled TV would most likely network with local PCs running the next version of Windows and also allow for gesture-based TV control (think: waving your arm to turn the set off). It’s also possible the system would be able to recognize individual people and automatically resume programming where it was left off."

Personally I am skeptical I'm not 100% sure that it won't happen or isn't happening but it seems a tad unlikely given the rivalry between Sony and MS. Its an interesting idea but I'm not holding my breath until Microsoft or Sony make an official comment and a product announced.

We all know Sony's TV divisions have been suffering a lot lately. Could the addition of Kinect technology help Sony return to profitability in their TV division? Could Kinect really compete with Apple TV and Google TV as The Daily is suggesting they could? Would Microsoft benefit a lot from getting Kinect in Sony's new TV's?

Source

One step closer to the future, and to Minority Report-like tech! :D

Its not a partnership.All companies do that with each other

Apple,samsung,microsoft,sony,toshiba,ibm,etc trade with each other and also license patents to each other

also what are they really licensing,the camera or the software tech behind it?

But.... but..... they hate each other so much...

The rivalry between "Sony and Microsoft" only exists in peoples minds, if this helps Kinect and Sony TV division both companies would do it, the same happens with Blu-ray on the Next X-box.

Is there competition? Yes, but there is no such thing as, "I refuse to give them money even if we would benefit with it" kind of attitude that often times is brought up.

Having said that, it is to early to tell if this is true or not.

pff as if MS would let a little rivalry in one of their smaller devisions get in the way of business

Well, why not. I just don't think this will be very successful any time soon. In my opinion the required hardware is still simply way too expensive to justify the questionable advantages for a TV set.

I guess they will build this into a few overpriced high-end TVs and it will pretty much only be bought by some snobs who like the idea of impressing their friends with some "cool" new feature they haven't seen yet.

In my opinion this kind of control could really become quite successful in TVs etc., but only if they manage to do it with simple & cheap, webcam-like 2D cameras (or voice recognition) instead.

Sort of like how Nintendo approved a Pokemon app for i-Phone. Nintendo said they will never make games for third party devices. The Pokemon app is a promotional device that Nintendo is using to their advantage threw their competitor directly or indirectly. The only reason Microsoft will do this if it benefits them more in the long run then it will Sony. If they thought by doing this they would increase Sony's ability to defeat the 360 or WP7 or another Microsoft device then they would not make a deal. Also in this case Sony is not the only one getting a license so it really shouldn't benefit Sony much more then any of Microsoft's other partners.

As for what is actually being licensed. I am not entirely sure the article was vague and I haven't seen any other articles claiming to be leaks. All the other articles are based off of that article so anything said anywhere is likely speculation based on the original supposed leak. I guess we could ask The Daily for clarification.

^^Dude I think you should calm down a bit. I don't think anything he said deserves that kind of reply. His Nintendo example is apt, of course MS wouldn't have licenced it if they thought it would be a bad move for them or any of their products or if it would benefit the company way more, and I see nothing wrong with the thread title either

What's the problem?

I find that strange when there are so many other "kinect type" options.
PrimeSense has teamed up with Asus to bring the tech to PCs and TVs

I remember watching CES 2011 on TV and they were a "dozen" kinect clones all promising the same if not better.
Surely Sony can find a cheaper option.