Kinect on PC

[Fat Tone]

We have a Kinect sitting in a cupboard waiting for Christmas.

I am SO looking forward to doing this:

http://www.engadget.com/2010/11/25/kinect-hack-lets-you-control-a-web-browser-using-only-the-force/

And I'm sure there'll be so much more to come. A Kinect only costs twice that of a high-end mouse. I see an interesting for this product.

[VJ]

Be careful: http://gizmodo.com/5699311/your-marr...our-television
I hope little Tone is not reading Murc, or he knows what Santa will bring him!

It is fun to see that the technology that seemed very science fiction in Minority Report, so now available. All that is missing is the display projected in mid air (but there are devices for that on the market as well, albeit very early stage). And unlike Tom Cruise, we don't even need gloves!

Jörg

[Fat Tone]

hehe, yeah the kids already know we have it (Santa and the tooth fairy are cousins, right?). Luke has a birthday in a couple of weeks so there'll no doubt be pressure for it to make an appearance then but I'm ok with being mean

That must have been one heck of a ring!!!

[Fat Tone]

Kinect update:

Ok, so using the xbox with the kinect is fun, for a few minutes.

This thing has HUGE potential to revolutionise gaming, but so far the games available are the weak link. There are some simple sports, a bit of dancing, playing with cute pets.
And then the reliability varies enormously. Done well it works very well, but take the Sonic skateboarding or the Harry Potter game, both almost impossible.

I still have high hopes. I think the hardware is ahead of the software.

Some might find this article on how machine learning helps Kinect track one or two subjects interesting:

http://www.theinstitute.ieee.org/portal/site/tionline/menuitem.130a3558587d56e8fb2275875bac26c8/index.jsp?&pName=institute_level1_article&TheCat=2201&article=tionline/legacy/inst2011/jan11/featuretech.xml

[VJ]

I think the hardware is ahead of the software.

Isn't it always?

I just wonder how it feels to control something without holding anything... perhaps more on a psychological level. Does that work? I have the feeling it might feel unnatural (you never interact with something without holding something else). Is there some from of trigger operation you can do to control more things in games, or are all the games purely full-body motion based?

Jörg

[Fat Tone]

It's mainly body or limbs, controlling a character on screen. If you are used to doing sports on the Wii that don't require accurate button pressing then its not too alien. I haven't tried the driving game, where you pretend to hold a steering wheel - I imagine that feels very strange. There's lots of jumping, ducking, leaning, waving of arms, kicking feet (and even laying down when training the kinectimals, very funny to watch).