Key Microsoft Kinect researcher jumps to Google
Johnny Chung Lee, a researcher in Microsoft's Applied Sciences group and a key player in the development of Kinect, has gone to Google.
Score another one for Google.
Johnny Chung Lee, a researcher in Microsoft's Applied Sciences group and an integral player in the development of the company's Kinect motion-gaming peripheral, is now working at Google. In his new capacity, Lee is a "rapid evaluator" in a "special projects team" at the search giant.
Lee worked on Kinect "through the very early days of incubation (even before it was called 'Project Natal')," he wrote yesterday on his personal blog announcing the change. Lee spent a total of two-and-a-half years working on the peripheral.
Microsoft's Kinect, which allows people to control on-screen action for the Xbox 360 with only the movement of their body, sold over 8 million units in its first 60 days of availability, easily outpacing the 5 million unit sales it was expected to tally through 2010.
Prior to his work on Kinect, Lee made a name for himself as a Wii hacker, developing head-tracking on Nintendo's console, among many other adaptations.
Given that history, it's likely that Lee is working on something game-related at Google. But for now, he's not saying.