Skyrim Kinect Made A Reality

Skyrim is one of the biggest games of the year, and there are certainly many aspects of it that conjure up exciting ideas for Kinect fans. Just a couple of days ago Gears of War creator Cliff Bleszinski even got excited by the notion.

"I want to play Skyrim and cast my spells using my hand or maybe occasionally doing some other strategy things in other types of games using hand gestures or voice, and do an integrated Kinect experience that has both. That's the thing that excites me the most" he said.

And now thanks to YouTube user KinectFAAST, Bleszinski's dream has become a reality. Using a program called FAAST, he was able to convert Kinect gestures into keystrokes. He also used a program called VAC to pair spoken words with keystrokes. This allows the player to, for example, swing their arm to hack with a sword. The left arm is used to control the players view, as well as the aiming of any equipped magic.

Nagivation is handled similarly to Rise of Nightmares, with the player putting one foot forward to move, and subtle leaning controlling direction. Voice control helps with menu navigation and equipping weapons and magic, as well as bringing up the map or starting a conversation with an NPC.

None of this is likely to excite the majority of Skyrims fans. As Bleszinsky states, "hardcore gamers are terrified by [Kinect], to the point where they get fiercely defensive", but there is definitely room for Kinect to complement a controller instead of necessarily replacing it here. The voice commands alone could be beneficial and genuinely immersive and Mass Effect 3 will hopefully be the first of many games that use voice for a tactical advantage.

Check out the full video below. Lets hope we'll get to see an actual retail game with this much ambition soon. We're looking at you, Ryse.

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The Kinect Effect - Microsoft Celebrates Kinect's One-Year Anniversary, Announces Commercial SDK

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.

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Kinect Fun Labs Announced - Available Now!

As we previously speculated, Kinect Me, Kinect Bobblehead, Kinect Googly Eyes and more are smaller apps for a new Kinect app store. Kinect Fun Lab is that app store, and will present the latest innovations from the Kinect scene as "gadgets".

Launching with several gadgets, the store introduces a number of new featuring to Kinect, including finger tracking in a new 3D drawing app, and the long-awaited object scanning. Kinect Me will also allow players to scan their body and face to have their likeness rewalised in an Xbox 360 Avatar.

With the Kinect PC SDK launching soon, we look forward to seeing the Fun Lab populated soon.

Kinect Fun Lab is available for free right now for all Xbox 360 owners, be sure to check it out.

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