Think the Kinect is just a fun addition to your living room at home? The Kinect might be a great way to entertain your friends and family, but Microsoft has a bigger vision for the device. To help develop the possibilites that the Kinect enables, Microsoft is launching the first-ever Kinect Accelerator program inSeattle in May, inviting teams from around the world to encourage this innovation.
Microsoft first announced this program in November, which is a joint incubation program developed in partnership with TechStars. Today, Microsoft officially selected the 11 startups that have been invited to TechStars’ offices in Seattle this month for three months, where they’ll get $20,000 in cash (but have to turn over six percent of their companies’ equity stake to TechStars.) Microsoft will then provide technical guidance, an Xbox SDK, the Kinect for Windows SDK and mentorship.