The old Kinect for the Xbox 360 could be plugged into a Windows PC if you did not want to use your Xbox. But it seems Redmond is shipping the new Kinect with a proprietary connector that can not be plugged directly into a PC. Microsoft is not planning to release an adapter to allow such cross-platform use.

The new generation Kinect for Windows sensor will connect to computers using a standard USB 3.0 port. While XBox One and Windows versions of the new generation Kinect are "built on a shared set of technologies" and have similar capabilities such as 1080p video, an active IR mode, and a wider field of view than the first Kinect, Microsoft insists that they are not exactly the same.

It is fairly likely that hardware hackers will be on the case fairly smartish. It would not take much to develop an adapter to allow the Xbox One Kinect to talk to a PC. Of course if you do that you will be out of warranty.