Razer and Intel Announce a Kinect-like Camera for Game Streamers

At Intel Developer Forum 2015 in San Francisco, it was announced that Intel in collaboration with Razer are working on a camera with VR and game broadcasting capabilities. It's based on Intel's RealSense technology and will feature Razer's unique product design.

"Razer is excited to be working with Intel, using Intel RealSense technology to help pioneer work for game broadcasting, as well as with VR, with support from the growing OSVR movement," said Min-Liang Tan, co-founder and CEO of Razer. "Gamers will, we expect, be able to enhance their broadcasting and VR experience in unprecedented ways."

"This is a great opportunity to make Intel RealSense technology easily accessible to the gaming and VR communities. We are proud of the beautiful design of Razer's Intel RealSense Camera peripheral and we look forward to enabling innovation in the gaming world together," said Dr. Achin Bhowmik, general manager of Perceptual Computing at Intel.

There are several interesting features to the technology that was on display. These include automatic background removal, which allows game streamers and content creators to remove or replace backgrounds to tailor it to the needs of their audience, allowing for a more immersive experience. In addition to this, Intel RealSense Cameras can recognise motion, gestures, and 3D scanning. Handy for budding product designers and creators looking to prototype objects and bodies into virtual spaces with ease.

Considering that Microsoft's experiment with Kinect is all but dead, it will be interesting to see if Razer and Intel manage to breath some life back into a niche that's been long discarded for more pragmatic, usable solutions.