Much of the excitement surrounding the new Xbox can be directly attributed to the next-gen Kinect sensor. Building off what the original Kinect started this takes NUI (natural user interaction) to the next level. From natural speech recognition to more accurate facial recognition and more detailed body motion capture. Kinect has been improved so much it's almost unfair to compare with the original incarnation. In this article let's go over what we know.
The New Xbox Revealed
It’s been an exciting couple weeks for Xbox fans. The new console was announced dubbed the “Xbox One” and the next-generation Kinect was debuted and detailed. We’ll give a brief synopsis of the new system as well as more in depth analysis of the new Kinect sensor in a later piece.
Steel Battalion: Heavy Armor Gameplay Screenshots
After a new trailer last month, Capcom decided to demo Steel Battalion: Heavy Armor at this years Tokyo Game Show. Japan's biggest video game magazine Famitsu have had a chance to see the game in action, bringing us our first shots of gameplay.
Project Draco Revealed - Screens and Gameplay Details
After a gameplay demonstration at this years Tokyo Game Show, we bring you all of the latest screenshots and gameplay details from one of Kinect's most anticipated upcoming releases.
Just What Is Fable: The Journey? - A Closer Preview
We take a deeper look at Lionheads upcoming Kinect Fable title to find out just what the game actually is; Not on rails -- on reigns.
Grasshopper Manufacture Officially Reveal Diabolical Pitch -- Video Demonstration
Having been announced last year as Codename D, Grasshopper Manufacture officially reveal their upcoming Kinect game, Diabolical Pitch. Click for all of the gameplay details as well as a video preview!
The software development kit allowing developers to create Kinect applications for the PC using Microsoft's tools was released earlier this year, and Microsoft have kicked off a brand new website introducing the newest release of the SDK.
New features include:
Faster and Improved Skeletal Tracking
With updates to the multi-core exemplar, Kinect for Windows is now 20% faster than it was in the last release. Also, the accuracy rate of skeletal tracking and joint recognition has been substantially improved.
Status Change Support
You can now plug and unplug your Kinect without losing work/productivity.
Improved Joint Tracking
Substantially improve the accuracy rate of joint recognition and tracking.
And it of course still comes with all of the documentation, raw sensor stream access, voice recognition and a whole host of features that help developers to get Kinect to do what they want it to do.
The commercial SDK, letting businesses and developers create software to work in and potentially revolutionize entire industries, is still scheduled for an early 2012 release.
On November 4th Kinect will have its first birthday and Microsoft are kicking off the week by celebrating the "Kinect Effect", the burst of innovative and often unexpected applications for the device spanning an array of industries and far exceeding its initial unveiling as a gaming platform.
Microsoft clearly sees hands-free interaction with computers as an important part of our future, and their plans with Kinect are just getting started. As well as the huge support from TV and entertainment content providers coming later this holiday season, Microsoft are set to launch the Kinect For Windows commercial program early next year.
The commercial program will give businesses the tools to develop applications that not only could improve their own operations, but potentially revolutionize entire industries. To date, more than 200 businesses worldwide -- including Toyota, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt and Razorfish -- have joined a Kinect for Windows pilot program to begin exploring the possibilities of Kinect. While no one knows what the future holds, if the past year is any indication, it’s going to be inspiring.
Kinect has inspired creativity inside the company says Kevin Schofield, general manager of Microsoft Research, which played a key role in developing Kinect. In Microsoft Research alone, several people are working on refining Kinect’s existing capabilities and enabling it to do more. For example, researchers are now looking to build a library of common Kinect gestures that Microsoft can share with developers to help their projects move more quickly.
“These things are just on a steady treadmill, they just keep getting better and better,” he says. “The underlying technology is just going to get better, and having the product out on the market accelerates the whole process.”
Read the full press release on Major Nelsons blog, and check out xbox.com/kinecteffect for a look at the variety of ways Kinect is being used today, and how it will be used in the near future.
Saturday, November 05, 2011
Glen
