Microsoft’s Kinect was announced at a huge performance at the 2010 E3 trade show. Last year, Microsoft announced project Natal, which has officially been renamed the Kinect – maybe as a cross-marketing effort with the Kin phone. Much like the Wii gaming system, the Xbox Kinect encourages real movement – but unlike the Wii, the Kinect will focus on full-body movement. As an add-on package to the Xbox 360 gaming system, the Kinect could be sold in November or October of this year.
How the Kinect works
A two-camera system is built to the Xbox Kinect. Depth is captured by one camera, when one more takes RGB color photographs and video. Combined, these cameras can re-create full body motion.This means there will be no controllers and no separation between game and player.
Games on the Kinect
The Microsoft Kinect, as an add-on to the Microsoft XBox, is slated to debut with a fairly wide range of games. LucasArts is partnering with the Microsoft Kinect application designers to create a Star Wars game that could be a heavily-scripted, light-saber smash-em-up game. There may also be a general sports game, a dance challenge, and a lot more. Many gamers are already drooling over the possibility of Halo Reach migrating to Kinect.
Is the Xbox Kinect your only option?
The success of the Nintendo Wii has encouraged other console makers to work on hands-free control systems. However, there are other alternatives to the Microsoft Kinect. Sony has been working on a system called the “Move” that will use a wand controller, but be half the price or less of the Kinect. The original success of the Nintendo Wii proved that gaming consoles could be sold to somebody other than just hard-core gamers. When the Xbox was at first released by Microsoft, the company lost over $ 1 billion – the system was a commercial success, but they did not sell enough units to hard-core gamers.
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