Well so long Kinect, we had fun times together. According to Co.Design, Microsoft has officially stopped manufacturing the motion sensing gaming device, as revealed in an interview with Alex Kipman, creator of the Kinect, and Matthew Lapsen, GM of Xbox Devices Marketing.

This bring to an end a seven-year run, with the first Kinect appearing in November 2010 for the Xbox 360. Through a camera, sensor and microphone, the Kinect was able to do full-body 3D motion capture, plus facial and voice recognition. Kinect 2.0 was released for the Xbox One in November 2013, providing better accuracy and body sensing capabilities. Combined these sold a commendable 35 million units since release, according to Co.Design.

Those who have loved and enjoyed the Kinect can take heart from the fact that, in a way, the Kinect still lives on. The core sensor powers Kinect v4 and the next-gen v5, which can be found in Microsoft’s augmented reality HoloLens headset. Co.Design also mentions that the Kinect team has worked on projects such as Cortana and Windows’ face recognition system, and a new user interface called Gaze, Gesture and Voice.

Talking about the creation of the Kinect, its inventor Alex Kipman states, “We looked at the problem ahead of us. We were using technology more and more. So we said, ‘Look, if we’re spending more and more time with these [technologies], one of two things will occur.’ Either we’re going to spend more time interacting with machines in machine ways, and dealing with what’s behind the screen. Or we’re going to have to teach machines to interact better in our world, the analog universe, and teach them to coexist.”

In TechSmart’s original review of the Kinect, we noted, “[…] Kinect is a great social experience, and it’s easily enjoyed by both friends and family. Someone who’s never seen an Xbox controller will be able to enjoy Kinect, it’s just that accessible.”

Here’s to the great time we had together Kinect, and may you contribute well to future man/machine interactions.