The debut of a motion-sensing controller designed for PCs has been announced by PrimeSense, the creator of the Kinect for Xbox 360. The company has teamed up with Asus to make the device, which is in turn creating a dedicated online store for selling compatible apps.

The controller goes by the name "WAVI Xtion," and will enable gesture controls for media center PCs. According to PrimeSense, the focus of the device will be on multimedia control, as opposed to the gaming focus of the Kinect.

Like the Kinect, you'll probably need a decent amount of room for it to see and process your waving appendages properly, so this won't be for a cramped home office. Asus is planning an "Xtion Online Store," where developers will be able to sell apps designed for the WAVI Xtion.

There is a definite demand for this type of controller—even without Microsoft's blessing, many a homebrew developer has adapted his or her Kinect for use with PCs. Given that the WAVI Xtion will be optimized for media rather than game control, it sounds like it's running the risk of falling short of functionality by comparison, though native PC compatiblity may appeal to a different subset of users.

The WAVI Xtion is currently scheduled for launch in February of this year. It will be formally introduced at both the PrimeSense and Asus booths at CES this week, where the Ars team will hopefully get a look.