Microsoft certainly seems to want to get developers on board to speed up the development of Kinect on Windows. Microsoft recently released an official SDK for Windows which will allow developers to come up with apps that make use of Kinect and its motion sensing technology in Windows 7. The company recently announced the Kinect Accelerator program.

The aim of this program is to allow Microsoft to support entrepreneurs, engineers and innovators to take advantage of the “limitless possibilities Kinect enables”.  Ten finalists will be chosen for this unique three month incubation program that will run from March to May, 2012. Every company that takes part in the Kinect Accelerator program will receive an incredible investment of $20,000, an Xbox development kit, the Windows Kinect SDK, office space, all the resources of BizSpark, technical training and support, and mentorship from entrepreneurs, investors and Microsoft executives who are intensely focused on making their business a success. Quite frankly, you’ll be given all the finance and resources you could possibly ever want to make your idea work!

So what qualifies for the Kinect Accelerator?

• Any Kinect-enabled application on Windows or Xbox that can be a commercial business
• Manufacturing to retail, education to healthcare, art installations to gaming, social to interactive play…hmmm, the possibilities
• Can be cloud-hosted, on any platform, but needs to be an application
• Could be one view of an application that may also have a web UI, mobile UI, etc
• Kinect-controlled applications, like what you have on your phone, but on a big screen or a computer screen
• Content you might expect to consume in your living room or in an operating room
• Go ahead, surprise us!

This really is a great opportunity for anyone or any company that has great ideas but just hasn’t got the resources to put them into practice as of yet. If you are participating in this program, it is almost certain that you will see your idea brought to reality.

If you’re interested in applying, be sure to check out this page