Kinect Connects
If there's one thing that's truly exciting in the gaming world this year, it's got to be Microsoft's Kinect for the XBox 360
which launched this month to stores in the US.
Kinect features motion sensor cameras that detect your body movements. Your movements can be translated to control Kinect-ready games for the XBox 360. Kinect can detect up to 48 joints from a single player. It can track up to 6 people including 2 players detecting up to 20 joints per player.
This hi-tech achievement is a milestone in gaming history. Nintendo Wii
started out with motion sensitive controllers. Then Sony came out with the Playstation Move, which pretty much falls somewhere in the middle of Wii (with the motion sensitive controllers) and Kinect (with the Playstation Eye
, which is basically a camera). Kinect, however, focuses on the camera sensor and removes the auxiliary controller entirely by making you, your whole body, the game controller instead.
Nothing fancy, really. There's just the camera sensor and everything else, thank you!
You'll likely need a lot of room to play Kinect. You'll have to be standing up to play most of the games. You'll likely play the games mostly in good lighting conditions (goodbye late-night-alone-in-the-room-with-the-lights-off game time). And you'll definitely be moving a lot to play. Since you are holding no controller at all, every movement of your legs, hips, torso, arms and head would be utilized. No wonder, early reviews find Kinect to be exhaustingly a lot of fun!
The ability of Kinect to engage players to be more physical when playing with their XBox 360 makes the gamer couch potato stereotype so yesterday. Playing with your game now gets you connected with the console -- you are the controller after all so you become one with the controller somehow. And, no, don't worry, it's not like marriage.
Kinect's technology takes entertainment to a whole new level. Since the XBox 360 can also contain applications for multi-media content, the Minority Report
in your living room is now closer to reality! Voice commands and hand/full-body gestures can be used to navigate and control the console applications. This is not sci-fi. This is real!
Kinect is available now for $150+, which is still cheaper than buying 4 Wiimote+MotionPluses
(up to $180+ total), or 4 Wiimote+Nunchucks
(up to $240+ total) or 4 PS3 Moves
(up to $280+ total).
Microsoft is rocking and rolling with two very "human" products this year: Kinect and Windows Phone 7. There's something brewing here to watch out for the future. Meanwhile, let's enjoy the show, shall we?
which launched this month to stores in the US.Kinect features motion sensor cameras that detect your body movements. Your movements can be translated to control Kinect-ready games for the XBox 360. Kinect can detect up to 48 joints from a single player. It can track up to 6 people including 2 players detecting up to 20 joints per player.
This hi-tech achievement is a milestone in gaming history. Nintendo Wii
started out with motion sensitive controllers. Then Sony came out with the Playstation Move, which pretty much falls somewhere in the middle of Wii (with the motion sensitive controllers) and Kinect (with the Playstation Eye, which is basically a camera). Kinect, however, focuses on the camera sensor and removes the auxiliary controller entirely by making you, your whole body, the game controller instead.Nothing fancy, really. There's just the camera sensor and everything else, thank you!
You'll likely need a lot of room to play Kinect. You'll have to be standing up to play most of the games. You'll likely play the games mostly in good lighting conditions (goodbye late-night-alone-in-the-room-with-the-lights-off game time). And you'll definitely be moving a lot to play. Since you are holding no controller at all, every movement of your legs, hips, torso, arms and head would be utilized. No wonder, early reviews find Kinect to be exhaustingly a lot of fun!
The ability of Kinect to engage players to be more physical when playing with their XBox 360 makes the gamer couch potato stereotype so yesterday. Playing with your game now gets you connected with the console -- you are the controller after all so you become one with the controller somehow. And, no, don't worry, it's not like marriage.
Kinect's technology takes entertainment to a whole new level. Since the XBox 360 can also contain applications for multi-media content, the Minority Report
in your living room is now closer to reality! Voice commands and hand/full-body gestures can be used to navigate and control the console applications. This is not sci-fi. This is real! Kinect is available now for $150+, which is still cheaper than buying 4 Wiimote+MotionPluses
(up to $180+ total), or 4 Wiimote+Nunchucks (up to $240+ total) or 4 PS3 Moves (up to $280+ total).Microsoft is rocking and rolling with two very "human" products this year: Kinect and Windows Phone 7. There's something brewing here to watch out for the future. Meanwhile, let's enjoy the show, shall we?
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