The New Kinect
The New Kinect
About two weeks ago, Microsoft revealed its new games console, the Xbox One. One of the most important components of the previous generation console from Microsoft was the Kinect – a system of cameras, based originally on Israeli technology, that was able to identify the human body in motion, and in effect make an external controller unnecessary.
The new generation of the Kinect, which will be bundled with every Xbox One console, is a serious leap forward compared with the previous generation, and this time it’s based on Microsoft technology. The capabilities of the new Kinect have been upgraded immeasurably: the Kinect is now capable of identifying not only movements of larger body parts, but even those of small parts, such as those of the fingers. This includes three-dimensional imaging of the finger – that is, the Kinect also knows where our finger is pointing.
And the capabilities don’t stop there. The Gold Rally und einheitliche Verein sind die beliebten Online- Spielautomaten unter diese Kategorie. new Kinect has more impressive facial recognition capabilities than in the past. The system can identify whether you are smiling or scowling, and can even measure you heart rate, on the basis of changes in the color of your face, due to changes in the capillaries under the skin. Voice command capability has also been upgraded, and the Kinect can now identify voices even in a noisy environment. Add to this a wide-angle HD camera that can take in up to a dozen people in the room, and advanced infrared photography that can function in low light, and you have a technological system that sees and hears very well – and I deliberately left off the quote marks from the verbs in the last clause.
UI experts are already showing great interest in the capabilities offered by the new system, and not for nothing – the previous generation had already created a community of independent developers, who took the Kinect to places that even Microsoft had not dreamed of.
Matt Parker, a new media artist and games designed, claims that “the ability to measure minute movements of fingers / toes makes for some really nice possibilities for interaction.” Oliver Kreyloss, a virtual reality researcher at the University of California, told TheVerge that this was a breakthrough in three-dimensional identification of finger movements.
The possibilities inherent in this are enormous. First, it will now be possible to detect an action corresponding to a finger pulling a virtual “trigger” (till now the Kinect could deal with pressing virtual buttons), or it will be possible to learn to play a virtual instrument more accurately. The new Kinect, with its many characteristics, is the newest user-friendliness test bed waiting to be investigated and exploited.