Kinect 2 Sensor Output Image Leaks 60
New submitter rabok writes "If a Microsoft job posting can be believed, we are set to get a new Xbox on store shelves by March 2014 at the latest. Regardless of when it does eventually arrive, it seems an image claiming to be the output of a Kinect 2 has hit the web by a user on twitter. Kinect 2 is expected to be much more accurate — even able to see individual fingers, read lips, and gauge moods. This image seems to back up that improvement in both depth perception and the ability to distinguish individual fingers."
Job postings are not news (Score:5, Interesting)
Clever - but can you play games with it? (Score:5, Interesting)
The Kinect is a clever little device - I've been really impressed at some of the uses that people have found for it. I'm sure that the next-gen version will be cleverer still and, if MS continue to be as admirably "open"(ish) with the hardware as they were with the first one, then I'm sure we'll see some useful applications of it. I can also see something like this being the future of TV remote controls - until they ruined it a bit with the new dashboard, the ability to control my 360 using voice and gestures (including in stuff like Sky Player) was really convenient.
But the problem with the Kinect is that - for everything bar exercise software (where it's fair-to-middling) - it's an awful games controller. It's really, really bad at sensing rapid movements. I mean, it's generally ok at tracking movements that are relatively slow and considered, but at higher speeds, it struggles. And that's a major problem, given that it pretty much rules out any game that involves precision at speed (which many, many games do).
Now in fairness, the Wii-mote has similar problems, even in its "Plus" incarnation - and, indeed, plenty of Wii games have been ruined or at least harmed by that. But for the most part, developers overcome this by augmenting motion controls with button inputs. Indeed, some of the best games on the Wii, like Super Smash Brothers Brawl, make no use of the motion controls at all.
For the most part, to be honest, I think motion control has been a bit of a passing fad. However, there's one counter-point to this I've found, which is slightly surprising. The Playstation Move came late to the party, is technologically unimpressive (it's a Wii-mote that "cheats" via the addition of a basic camera that tracks a coloured ball on the end) and hasn't created much excitement. However, I've played both Killzone 3 and Resistance 3 using it (augmented by the navigation controller) and can confirm that for playing an fps on a console, it is way, way better than a twin-stick controller. It gives a degree of fine precision to your aim that rivals that of a keyboard and mouse. Large, rapid turns are still a problem compared to PC input, but the gap over traditional console controllers is huge. There's a similar effect on the Vita, actually, where Uncharted allows for something similar via tilt controls. This is one area where I think existing motion control technology can actually enhance games in the long-run, rather than being a short lived party novelty.
Re:Microsoft Kinect Spy System (Incl. video) (Score:5, Interesting)
Comment removed (Score:4, Interesting)