News Tagged: Technology
News: New Patent Suggests Kinect Can Tell Your Age
Blocks inappropriate content too
Kinect has no end of patents connected to it, but one of the more interesting registrations has just surfaced online, suggesting that the sensor can work out a player's age. Using its skeletal maps, Kinect could be able to discern the likely age of anyone in its viewing range, and block inappropriate content accordingly. We don't just mean not letting little Jimmy.. Continue Reading »
News: Masters Project Shows How Hybrid Games Should Work
Impressive stuff
No matter how successful Kinect becomes, there'll always be a part of us that yearns for an analogue stick and buttons to make the experience better. That's exactly what hybrid games like Steel Battalion: Heavy Armor are promising, but how long until we see a first-person shooter using hybrid controls, and what would it be like? Talented programmer Alexander Poolton has already.. Continue Reading »
News: Kinect's Educational Value Explored in Classrooms
Always learning
Kinect's applications outside of gaming are vast: we've seen it used for robotics, surgery and turning people into superheroes. It's also got more everyday uses though, as the fantastic site KinectEDucation outlines. Teacher Johnny Kissko is currently using Kinect in his classroom, using the FAAST and Kodu toolkits to get the sensors working on laptops. Kissko's plan is to have all.. Continue Reading »
News: The Long Road to Kinect Voice Commands is Not Over
Will continue to grow
The point of voice commands is to feel totally natural and responsive, but a Microsoft Research article has gone behind the scenes to detail the research and development that went into creating one of Kinect's most useful features. Xbox principal program manager Thomas Soemo laid out the challenge facing the group as "how do we achieve what feels like Star Trek?",.. Continue Reading »
News: Microsoft and More Sued for Kinect Patent Infringement
Acting on Impulse?
US firm Impulse Technology has filed a lawsuit against Microsoft, alleging Kinect for Xbox 360 infringes on seven Impulse patents. The plaintiff wants a permanent injunction against Microsoft — which would necessitate an internal redesign of Kinect — as well as damages and "treble damages", which just sounds greedy, really. According to Impulse, Kinect infringes.. Continue Reading »
News: Kinect "More Accurate Now Than at Launch" says Microsoft
Getting better all the time
It's official: Microsoft has boosted Kinect's accuracy in the past six months. Xbox senior product manager David Dennis confirmed the software powering the sensor has been updated recently, paving the way for the likes of Kinect Fun Labs and Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Future Soldier. I think like we showed at E3, like Kudo showed with Kinect Fun Labs – a lot of that.. Continue Reading »
News: Mother Nature Uses Kinect to Change the World
Well, sort of
We've seen a lot of wish-fulfilment Kinect demos, from lightsabers to invisibility, but the sensor can be used for more conscionable activities too, as Mother Nature proves. A PC game using Kinect for gesture recognition, Mother Nature puts you in the hemp sandals of the deity herself, letting you cultivate life on Earth from the smallest seed upwards. The official description puts it.. Continue Reading »
News: Your First Look at Kinect's Interactive Adverts
This is how they'll work
Kinect is getting interactive adverts, and they look a lot like this. The NUads — that's Natural User Interface Ads — will let you interact with adverts, sharing them via Twitter, receiving more information via email and text and generally doing all sorts of futuristic-style things. We'll let Enrique de la Garza explain. Continue Reading »
News: Kinect Voice Controls Coming to Australia This Year
Strewth
Voice control for Kinect isn't available everywhere yet, but it is coming to Australia before the end of 2011, Microsoft Australia's Xbox 360 boss has confirmed. David McLean told GameSpot that the territory would get voice support this year, though didn't — or couldn't — reveal more specifically when gamers Down Under would be able to use their voices in the Kinect Hub. Continue Reading »
News: Kinect Will Get Interactive Adverts Next Year
Xbox, buy buy buy!
According to the New York Times, Microsoft is set to unveil a set of interactive Kinect adverts on Tuesday. The paper reports the project, titled NUads, will let gamers use voice commands to share the adverts online: "Xbox Tweet" would send it to Twitter, "Xbox More" would send more information to the user via email and "Xbox Near Me" could display.. Continue Reading »
Out Now: Kinect SDK Lets You Create Your Own Kinect Apps
And for free!
The Kinect software development kit (SDK) is now available for PC users to create their own applications for Kinect. Here's the official description straight from Microsoft. To start creating your own Kinect applications, download the Kinect SDK here. If you manage to create something cool, be sure to show it off to us! The Kinect for Windows SDK beta is a programming toolkit for.. Continue Reading »
News: Players in Eye-Tracking Glasses Find Kinect Confusing
What's it all about?
Using Kinect is supposed to be easy for experienced and new gamers alike, but user experience consultancy User Vision has just finished a study that shows the sensor still has work to do. Using eye-tracking glasses, User Vision studied how users played Reflex Ridge in Kinect Adventures, claiming that vital instructions were ignored or misinterpreted: Players found that the.. Continue Reading »
News: Minority Report Kinect Interface Shown Off
Features finger-tracking
Last year we reported on an early Minority Report-style hack for Kinect, and the idea persists as Evoluce recently presented its own take on the interface at the RTT Excite conference. The hack uses finger-tracking to manipulate icons, images and videos, lending itself to desktop computing as well as preventing murders yet to happen with the help of three psychically-gifted.. Continue Reading »
News: Developers Now Have Access to Better Kinect Responsiveness
Lag could be a thing of the past
We reported in March that Kinect input lag could be cut to under 5 milliseconds with enhanced behind-the-scenes algorithms, and now it seems this technology has been incorporated into the latest software development kit, according to Computer and Video Games. The site reports that development teams have been granted access to an enhanced Kinect interface that.. Continue Reading »
News: Analyst: New Xbox and New Kinect May Be Unveiled in 2012
Gaze into the crystal ball
Recent rumours suggested we'd see a new Xbox console at E3 next month, but these were quickly squashed and thrown away. But next year? That's much more likely, according to M2 Research analyst Billy Pidgeon. The brilliantly named analyst believes the new machine could be shown off at next year's E3 if Xbox 360 sales begin to slow down over the next six months. Central to.. Continue Reading »
News: This Portal 2 Kinect Hack Is Not a Lie
Though it's not exactly practical either
While Kinect's capable of lots of things, from turning you into a superhero, to helping the blind see, but forget all that: it also plays Portal 2. Brad Cooley used the FAAST toolkit to get the game up-and-running with Kinect and although it's in need of a few tweaks, it's still an impressive show of what's possible using Kinect. Continue Reading »
News: Kinect Navigates the Universe and Helps the Blind to See
Next step: sentience
The Kinect SDK is due this spring, and judging by what Microsoft's research arm has already achieved with the device, the world of Kinect hacks is about to get a lot more interesting. The video below shows Kinect used in all kinds of useful ways, including alerting the visually-impaired to potential dangers, helping wheelchair users to navigate and assisting in the navigation.. Continue Reading »
News: Microsoft Already Building the Future of Kinect Hardware
Next Xbox in the works too
Having spent millions of dollars developing Kinect you won't be surprised that the company is keen to keep advancing the technology, with a recent job posting pointing towards new versions of the device. While the advert doesn't give any solid information as to what the future of Kinect may be, it does confirm that it plays a big part in Microsoft's plans for the future.. Continue Reading »
News: Kinect Voice Control Vital to Sensor's Future, says Rare Boss
Xbox, show the future
The list of Kinect voice commands is quite small for now, but Rare studio manager Scott Henson believes the sensor's vocal capabilities will improve vastly over time. Speaking to MCV, Henson once again reiterated the studio's belief that we've only seen 10% of Kinect's potential used in games so far: We’re going to make using your voice much more front an Continue Reading »
News: Kinect Light-Writing Display Spruces Up Shop Window
Nordstrom gets funky
This isn't the first time we've seen Kinect used for interesting things other than gaming — check out some of the previous Kinect hacks — but it is the first time we recall the sensor being used to advertise products in a shop window. Fashion chain Nordstrom recently planted a sensor in the window of its downtown Seattle store, encouraging passers-by to step up to the.. Continue Reading »
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