Introducing the new XBOX Kinect

The Nintendo Wii made waves when it was first launched in 2006, not because of a dazzling array of games or features but instead due to the motion-controlled gaming interface which allows players to interact with the game like never before. Four years and 75 million world-wide Wii sales later, Microsoft has released their version of this new-wave of technology. But Microsoft has gone one step further. The Kinect system has no physical controllers to speak of at all; the idea is that your body is the controller, forget swinging a controller around – you simply don’t need it. The Kinect console artfully uses a built-in microphone and camera to work out what you’re doing and what you’re saying and then interpret your commands in the appropriate fashion, providing a far more immersive experience than any controller-led console can offer. Now, for the first time, gamers have the opportunity to, quite literally, play inside the game.

With this in mind, it’s hard not to get swept up in the buzz and the sheer excitement surrounding Microsoft’s latest offering. In gaming terms it’s this interactivity that makes Kinect stand out from the crowd and, to its credit, it genuinely works – and works well.

The Kinect sensor contains an RGB camera and a depth sensor to track your movements, it measures the positioning of more than 20 key joints in your body and by tracking the movements of these joints, it can work out exactly what position your body is in. What’s more, it sees in 3D by overlaying the input from the RGB camera with the depth sensor, allowing the Kinect to accurately register each swing of the arm and frantic kick of the leg and relay that back into the game.

Meanwhile a multi-array microphone monitors the room for your voice, and, in Star-Trek inspired fashion, even allows you to control your XBOX using voice commands alone.

However, this is not to say that Kinect is perfect. There is no denying that there is some fantastic technology inside the Kinect and it is an impressive system but in order to really enjoy it, you may have to re-adjust your expectations in regard to what it is and it isn’t capable of.

If you’re expecting to play a game and have your on-screen avatar do exactly as you do with your body, quickly, completely in sync and with no time lag – you may be disappointed. You just can’t do that in most games.

A slow, gradual movement, for example, will have almost no noticeable lag at all. The faster you move, the more pronounced the lag is. However, Kinect is less about having your real-world movements mimicked in exact fashion and more about the fun and interactivity involved in using your body as a controller. A split-second delay here and there is a small price to pay for the sheer pleasure gained from having this amount of control over the game.

Ultimately, the main selling-point of Kinect is how much fun can be had by playing it and with all the arm-gesturing, ducking, weaving, waving and kicking involved you certainly may need to leave your dignity at the door, but, then again, that’s all part of the fun.

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Categories: Games (Articles)

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