Kinect 2 for XBoxOne is not compatible with Windows because it uses a proprietary I/O connector. Kinect 2 for Windows uses a standard USB connector.
My guess is that there are
probably other differences between the two models, like how there are differences between the original Xbox Kinect and Windows Kinect. For example, the original Windows Kinect featured some minor but important hardware differences that allowed for 'near mode', which is useful for 3D scanning and face capture. There were also various video quality controls not available to the Xbox Kinect but not the Xbox version. There will possibly be some differences because Kinect 2 for Windows is likely to target markets outside of gaming (i.e., medical research, simulation, education, etc.) Naturally, it will be up to Windows developers find uses for those features. As I said, I'm just guessing though.
Not that such differences will matter with this latest generation of Kinect devices since you won't be able to run the XBoxOne version on Windows anyway.
I'm pretty excited about the Kinect 2 because I've been using three synchronized Kinects for Windows (original version) for motion capture, and the software I'm using, iPi Mocap Studio 2.0, is getting upgraded to use Kinect 2.0 for Windows later this month. That said, the developers are saying that the difference in mocap quality for film and game projection probably isn't going to be as dramatic as many people are expecting, so I'm going to hold off upgrading my 'old' devices for a while longer. (I'm definitely upgrading to Mocap Studio 3.0 though--it's going to be much more than just a Kinect 2 upgrade.)
Kinect 2 for Windows will probably be a much bigger deal for Nevron Motion users since LW3DG is using the SDK from Microsoft. Looking forward to any news from LW3DG on the subject.
G.
