Image courtesy CVG
It's much bigger
While enthusiastic coders do everything from play Angry Birds with Kinect to make shadow puppets, Microsoft has its own plan for Kinect that goes far beyond gaming.
A recent episode of the UK's Channel 4 news, of all programmes, took a look behind Microsoft Home, a project based at the computing giant's Redmond, Seattle headquarters.
A mock-up of a child's bedroom uses a projector to display an image on the wall. as well as features voice recognition, letting the user activate options just using vocal commands, and the ability to select icons using using just your hands, with no controller required. The room isn't necessarily being controlled by Kinect, but it's certainly similar technology expanding on the sensor's current living room applications.
Being able to control your entire room through Kinect may be just a few years away, but if that's where the sensor is heading it's an exciting future indeed.
User Comments
1. Madgame
11 Feb 2011, 20:50 GMT
Pretty cool, but I bought a Kinect to play video games, Microsoft. Where are they??
2. teamdoa
11 Feb 2011, 23:51 GMT
Aye they need to start making some AAA titles instead of messing around. The only titles worth owning are Dance Central, Kinect Sports, and Kinectimals (if you have kids)
3. soaduk
13 Feb 2011, 00:43 GMT
Agree with above noone cares about this Microsoft make some games instead!
4. hrnyseany
14 Feb 2011, 09:23 GMT
To be fair I think if Microsoft carry on trying get the kinect doing things away from the xbox and not concentrate on getting more games on it, then Microsoft itself will kill the kinect. I just hope that just because they sold so many units so quickly for the xbox they are not going to just think lets see what else we can sell this on, PC users... theres loads of them, sell it for the PC and ultimately never have any software to use it with
5. zhorzhio
14 Feb 2011, 17:51 GMT
Microsoft is a very smart company. They are thinking big picture. With its voice and body recognition capability, it has the potential to reach people who don't even want to play games. It could eventually become a major product for the average consumer by just being a new way to interact with your home entertainment center. While I agree there needs to be more games, and I think the games will come in time, I believe there's too much potential with Kinect for them to think small potatoes.