Microsoft Working On Kinect 2 75
itwbennett writes "Eurogamer published a piece on a rumored Kinect 2 system that will most likely launch with the next iteration of the Xbox line, which might be sometime between late 2012 and 2014. Eurogamer says this new Kinect won't be hobbled by the limitations of the USB 2.0 port that the current Kinect uses; instead the hardware will be designed to give the new Kinect a faster pipeline to the system's internals. What this means, says blogger Peter Smith is that 'not only can Kinect 2 read finger movements (high on the wish-list for the current hardware) but it can read lips, too. I don't think they mean this in the sense that it can extrapolate what you're saying from your lip movements, but that it can tell who in a room is speaking by matching lip movement to audio input.'"
Read Lips? (Score:5, Funny)
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Didn't Kinect come from a company MS bought the rights from? or did they buy the company? Is this the same brain trust or the MS brain trust?
PrimeSense developed the hardware, MS developed the software. Presumably PrimeSense will develop a higher resolution version of the current hardware and MS will do the finger tracking, lip reading, etc... software.
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clearly you don't see the potential in a cheap consumer tracking device then.
given the cost, Kinect is actually an amazing bit of technology, and it will be interesting to see where things progress in the next few years in this space.
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Didn't Kinect come from a company MS bought the rights from? or did they buy the company? Is this the same brain trust or the MS brain trust?
PrimeSense developed the hardware, MS developed the software.
except it didnt, unless by developed you mean MS ported PrimeSenses code (openni) to xbox360
Re:Microsoft or the contractor? (Score:4, Interesting)
Didn't Kinect come from a company MS bought the rights from? or did they buy the company? Is this the same brain trust or the MS brain trust?
PrimeSense developed the hardware, MS developed the software.
except it didnt, unless by developed you mean MS ported PrimeSenses code (openni) to xbox360
Except it did, otherwise the Kinect and Windows SDKs would merely be OpenNI, which they aren't. If you've actually used them you'll see the feature sets are quite different and operate in different ways.
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What? MS is providing awesome hardware and letting game developers and home developers do what they want with it. I know basing Microsoft (sorry, M$) reflexively is part of the Slashdot experience, but Kinect technology is a really cool thing. It may have been pushed to market to compete with the Wii, but what's the problem with that? Different companies should compete and try to best each other, and anyway it's clearly not just a copy of the same technology.
"Nintendo's goal is an emotional experience."
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"Nintendo's goal is an emotional experience." Is that what you call endless variations of Mario & Zelda?
While I still like the Zelda games I have never found the Mario games all that appealing but then million's of people who do like the Mario games would strongly disagree with me to the point of taking out a contract :)
Another Nintendo game series I liked was Metroid and going from a 2D side-scroller to first person (sort of) shooter was a change which IMHO actually worked. However later versions of Metroid like Zelda appear to be just IMHO a rehash in order to make money which Nintendo is very good at do
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If you are unimaginative to see the possibilities of Kinect then don't assume everyone else is. As the hardware and software improves, Kinect will do much more than just gaming. It could be used in cars to detect pedestrians, among other endless possibilities.
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It is for gaming, OTHER people saw the potential outside that and started hacking and MS for fear of losing control over it then got involved so they could try to maintain a monopoly over the tech instead of everybody buying them for mac/linux from 3rd parties someday because I believe MS doesn't still own the tech behind it.
It is primarily for gaming and that is what got it subsidized into existence now; the actual inventors likely would have come to market somewhere else at a later date probably with less
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"I'm sorry Dave, I can't let you play that"
Hey Kinect, read my lips! Can't do that!? Well then read my middle finger!!!
Re:Read Lips? (Score:4, Funny)
Wouldn't it need x-ray vision to see through your nose?
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When playing a game one of the most useful features is haptic feedback which for a while has been the "rumble" of the controller.
I really liked the way the Wii controller had its own speaker. The "DING" let's whoever turn is up know that they need to get off their butt and bowl!
News at 11 (Score:5, Funny)
$Company is working on ($CurrentVersion + 1) of $PopularProduct. The new version is expected to have better $CharacteristicDeJour and will be released in $SomeNumber years from now. This will fulfill the desires of people currently using $CurrentVersion, and enable them to do lots of really cool new things.
/. will be inundated with stories about $PopularProduct no matter how trivial they are, or how many other sites reported on them $RandomNumber months ago.
However the ($CurrentVersion + 1) of $PopularProduct may or may not implement $PieInTheSkyFeature, although this will be vigorously debated by $FanBois and $AntiFanBois - even after the new version has come out.
All that can be guaranteed is that
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I know it's shocking but some people on a technology site are genuinely interested in technology. You might want to find somewhere else to troll.
Re:News at 11 (Score:5, Funny)
if(troll){
feed;
}
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Too verbose.
poster.isTroll?poster.feed():poster.troll();
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Re:News at 11 (Score:4, Insightful)
Over 700,000 of them sold in one day on black Friday, so yes, I'd say that qualifies as popular.
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If you can't sell a million units on black friday, you may as well surrender.
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Really? Where did you read this? Was there a massive price cut?
It's pretty surprising since the most recent TOTAL sales number I read was 10 million, so 0.7 million in 1 day is staggering if true.
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Walmart had a pretty sweet deal -- Xbox + Kinect + $50 gift card for $200. http://bfads.net/Walmart-Black-Friday-Xbox-360-4gb-Console-w-50-Walmart-GC [bfads.net]
Re:News at 11 (Score:4, Funny)
Pepper spray not included.
read lips (Score:1)
>read lips
From now on my girlfriend is not allowed to game without underpants anymore
Finger Movement? (Score:1)
My feature wish (Score:1)
A Kinect that works from four feet away in a room that isn't lit up like an operating theatre.
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I almost always play video games in the dark, on a nice big projected screen, from about 10' away. The PS3's lit Move controller has no problem with this, and the Wii doesn't either, but Kinect I haven't tried (and don't think it would be happy about it).
To be fair, I have yet to see a single Kinect game feature that seemed worth buying it for.
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Sir, perhaps you should have gone to Walmart on Black Thanksgiving.
Those Kinect games were just about the most sought after items. Seriously, football is passe. Watch the action for the Kinect games at Walmart.
USB 3.0 or proprietary? (Score:3, Interesting)
So, the question is will it be USB 3.0 or something proprietary.
My guess would be proprietary, so they don't have to worry about it getting hacked this time. Of course, that would also mean that there's a new XBox in the works.
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So, the question is will it be USB 3.0 or something proprietary.
My guess would be proprietary, so they don't have to worry about it getting hacked this time. Of course, that would also mean that there's a new XBox in the works.
Most likely USB 3.0 or Thunderbolt, no sense creating another protocol. They didn't seem to care much that people were using it to develop on Windows.
Thunderboth unlike due to lack TB data only cards (Score:2)
and very few systems with it now.
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They didn't seem to care much that people were using it to develop on Windows.
you referring to devloping kinect apps on windows? they give away the windows SDK for free now. they do actually care, and indeed want people to do it.
Sorry that was in reference to:
so they don't have to worry about it getting hacked this time
They didn't seem to care that people were doing that, and as you say they even released an SDK.
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Just because there's no sense in it doesn't mean they won't.
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Just because there's no sense in it doesn't mean they won't.
It does mean it's less likely though, especially given the 'Kinect for Windows' stuff they are doing.
Re:USB 3.0 or proprietary? (Score:5, Insightful)
Marketing (Score:2)
wifi or Ethernet seems good and works with PC's (Score:2)
No way that this will be xbox only.
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Quote from the summary:
Kinect 2 system that will most likely launch with the next iteration of the Xbox line
So yes, in case it was unclear, there's a new xbox coming too. The chance that it will not be named xbox 720 at this point are slim.
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So, the question is will it be USB 3.0 or something proprietary.
My guess would be proprietary, so they don't have to worry about it getting hacked this time. Of course, that would also mean that there's a new XBox in the works.
I think getting it "hacked" is what made it so popular with other developers. Hopefully they aren't that short sighted, but you never know.
3rd generation XBOX 2013-2014 (Score:2)
So does that pretty much say that the new 3rd generation Xbox is going to be released for 2013-2014?
One step closer to the Heart of Gold's radio (Score:1)
A loud clatter of gunk music flooded through the Heart of Gold cabin as Zaphod searched the sub-etha radio wavebands for news of himself. The machine was rather difficult to operate. For years radios had been operated by means of pressing buttons and turning dials; then as the technology became more sophisticated the controls were made touch-sensitive - you merely had to brush the panels with your fingers; now all you had to do was wave your hand in the general direction of the components and hope. It saved a lot of muscular expenditure of course, but meant that you had to sit infuriatingly still if you wanted to keep listening to the same programme.
Really? (Score:1)
I'm waiting for Kinect 4
Re:Really? (Score:5, Funny)
I'm waiting for Kinect 4
Microsoft have a Checkered past. They have such a Monopoly on movement sensors, it becomes a game of Chess for developers. The whole Operation should be a Snap for Microsoft. But for customers who pay and pay again it's more like Snakes And Ladders. I hope they keep Up Words about how it's proceeding. I'll be jumping on it like a Hungry Hippo. Just hope they don't Sink My Battleship!
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It's already out. It's called an Open MRI. Pretty good resolution (sees right through you!) but you can't really move all that much. And it costs a ton. And you pretty much need to custom build a new house without a whole lot of ferrous metal anywhere near the system.
Minecraft Working on Kinect 2 (Score:2)
... and here I thought you could play Minecraft on it.
Damn... might have made the game interesting and gotten me some exercise.
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TrackIR [naturalpoint.com] has existed for some years and there is also a free clone of it with FreeTrack [free-track.net].
Array Microphone (Score:2)
The current Kinect can already tell who is talking thanks to its four-way microphone array.