Microsoft is serious about breaking into the gaming console market. They are launching a new and major enhancement to their Xbox 360 system – the Kinect (formerly known as Project Natal). Even though Microsoft is known for hyping things up, there is no doubt that the Kinect is quite a revolutionary product … if it works even half as well as advertised.
So what is the Kinect for Xbox 360? It basically adds yet another way for you to control movement in the games you play. In theory, it lets you use voice chat for networked multi-player games, and it also reads and interprets your body’s movements to control the movement and action within the game (instead of using the typical joystick, for example). There is also talk that the Kinect can accept voice commands, although how much is merely speculation and how much is reality remains to be seen.
So that is what the Xbox Kinect is supposed to do for you – provide a funky new way for you to play your games. Based on demos, it is a video sensor and microphone unit in a horizontal bar connected to a small base with a motorized pivot. It is supposed to be placed lengthwise below your video display.
Does the technology really work? Unfortunately, there is no way to know until it actually comes out. In theory, everything Microsoft says the Kinect system can do is well within the boundaries of reality. On the other hand, it also sounds like technology on the same advanced level as that used in controlling smart bombs and guided cruise missiles, not to mentions the high-tech spying equipment, so one has to wonder if it is really as effective as claimed. It is also difficult to say whether or not it would be subjected to US export controls.
For good or for ill, the Kinect for Xbox 360 does have one glaring fault. It cannot work with old games. That is to say, unless a game is specially programmed to use its specialized capabilities, you are stuck playing it using the usual methods. In addition, the Kinect needs 175 MB of storage and consumes 10% to 15% of the Xbox 360′s processing power.
Microsoft plans to start selling the Xbox Kinect in time for Christmas of 2010. We’ll see.
Tags: kinect for xbox 360, xbox kinect