Kinect: The Official Thread

[Snake]

They say its 150$ and the just before release drop it to 100$ and say "See....we care about the consumers!!!"

[R a g h u]

They say its 150$ and the just before release drop it to 100$ and say "See....we care about the consumers!!!"

 

If they do that..then they sure do care about their customers

[TRMNTR]

The Engadget Show - 010: Jimmy Fallon, Kudo Tsunoda, Microsoft Kinect, iPhone 4, Samsung Captivate, Droid X

 

A nice Kinectimals demo at around 40/41 mins in.

• 2 Kinect games before the Kinectimals demo.
  
• The racing game after it.
  
• A "tech demo" follows. The response time is pretty amazing in this one.
  

PS - A great overall show.

 

 

 

[TRMNTR]

 

[AtheK]

I love the way Kinect integrates with Zune Marketplace, I see myself using Kinect more for multimedia then playing games...

[devil_angel]

I love the way Kinect integrates with Zune Marketplace, I see myself using Kinect more for multimedia then playing games...

 

I see you wasting 150 $ just because you're too lazy to press the pause and play buttons!

[Snake]

Microsoft’s Greenberg: Milo is a tech demo, no plans to release it

 

 

Milo’s always been one of the more interesting demonstrations of Kinect’s potential; apparently, that’s all it will ever be.

 

Speaking on ABC TV’s Good Game, Xbox boss Aaron Greenberg said Peter Molyneux’s mildly creepy virtual son probably won’t ever come out to play.

 

“Milo; he’s safe and sound back in England. No… the Milo Project is something that Lionhead Studios in their labs had developed. Last year we unveiled the Project Natal technology, we showed a bunch of technology demos as part of that,” he explained.

 

“And obviously [Milo] is a technology demo that continues to exist, but right now it’s not a game that we’re planning to bring to market.”

Molyneux told VG247 that we’ll be seeing more of Milo and his gal pal Kate next month. From the sound of things, though, we’ll only be seeing – not touching (or flailing in the general direction of, as it were).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

oopsie poopsie!!!!!

[Buzz]

Microsoft claims "hardcore" will be first to get Kinect

 

 

 

Microsoft's worldwide product marketing head Ryan Moore today told an interviewer that Kinect will likely be bought by serious gamers first. He explained that "hardcore gamers" are the first to go and buy devices and will still buy the motion controller despite the casual focus. Moore characterized it for CVG as just having a wider appeal.

 

"We know that hardcore gamers will be the first to go out and buy [Kinect], as they are with any product," he said. "So we know we have to have a wide range of experiences, from things like the animals game you saw today to... games that are more geared towards the core. So I would expect a wide range of products to be released this holiday."

 

The executive also provided insight into the company's launch of the slimmer Xbox 360. Europeans should get similar pricing, including price cuts on the outgoing Arcade and Elite models. Suspicions that Microsoft copied the slim PS3 philosophy were also discounted, as Moore understood that Microsoft had been planning the smaller Xbox since "before [sony's] announcements last year" and was part of the logical move to smaller, more efficient systems that happens with console designs.

 

The new design runs on Valhalla, an architecture known to have been development for years that merges the CPU and graphics into a single, less power-hungry package. As suggested by its name, it may be the final Xbox 360 revision shipped before a completely new system.

[Dark_Knight]

 

[TRMNTR]

Microsoft’s Greenberg: Milo is a tech demo, no plans to release it

 

'Project Milo' team about 50 strong; 'product' not coming this holiday

 

While Van Tilburgh could not openly comment to Joystiq on the assumption (based on Greenberg's statement) that Milo could remain a non-retail tech demo, he did clarify, "There's about 50 people on the 'Project Milo Team'" (which would seem an unlikely number of staff and apparent resources to devote to a mere demo).

 

Van Tilburgh deferred to Greenberg, who tweeted this official statement today: "Project Milo absolutely continues in development at Lionhead Studios, it is just not a product we plan to bring to market this holiday." While carefully worded, Greenberg's statement suggests that Milo, in some shape or form, is likely to be integrated into a retail product in the future.

[Buzz]

Kinect supports two "active players"

 

According to a technical specification published by UK retailer Play.com, Kinect is only capable of tracking two players.

 

The Microsoft camera sensor "tracks up to six people, including two active players," according to the spec, which Play.com notes is supplied by the manufacturer.

 

The term "active players" is used again when referring to Kinect's ability to track "20 joints per active player" and "map actve players to Live Avatars".

 

So it would seem only two people can use full-body motion control in a game simultaneously, although from what we saw of the device at E3, it could be possible for up to six to swap into and out of "active play" fairly quickly and seamlessly.

 

With Kinect having a horizontal field of view of 57 degrees, and depth sensor range of 1.2m to 3.5m, perhaps the restriction isn't that surprising. You'd struggle to get more than two bodies standing up in front of a TV within that area in most living rooms.

 

The spec doesn't say how many voices Kinect's audio sensors can recognise and track, mentioning only "speech recognition in multiple".

 

Kinect is due out in North America on 4th November and the rest of the world "thereafter"

 

Link

[TRMNTR]

Hasn't MS already confirmed 4 players?

[KnackChap]

here are the full specs from Play.com

 

UK-based online retailer Play.com has listed the full technical specifications of Microsoft's upcoming Kinect, as provided by Microsoft.

 

While the system apparently tracks up to six people at a time, it is only capable of tracking two "active players."

 

We're not sure exactly how an "active player" is defined, but reading the specifications, the term is again used to describe the twenty-point skeleton tracking system and "ability to map players to Live Avatars," so it would appear that for all intents and purposes, only two people can play full-body Kinect games at a time.

 

The full spec sheet, courtesy Play.com, is below.

 

Sensor

Colour and depth-sensing lenses

Voice microphone array

Tilt motor for sensor adjustment

Fully compatible with existing Xbox 360 consoles

Field of View

Horizontal field of view: 57 degrees

Vertical field of view: 43 degrees

Physical tilt range: ± 27 degrees

Depth sensor range: 1.2m - 3.5m

Data Streams

320x240 16-bit depth @ 30 frames/sec

640x480 32-bit colour@ 30 frames/sec

16-bit audio @ 16 kHz

Skeletal Tracking System

Tracks up to 6 people, including 2 active players

Tracks 20 joints per active player

Ability to map active players to Live Avatars

Audio System

Live party chat and in-game voice chat (requires Xbox Live Gold Membership)

Echo cancellation system enhances voice input

Speech recognition in multiple

 

hmm... interesting. although the camera resolution is same as the playstation eye, the fps is way lower. (PS eye: 640×480 pixels @ 60 Hz, 320×240 pixels @ 120 Hz) and the FOV is also much bigger in the eye.

[Karooo]

Fail wtf. How can it be same resolution and have lower FPS than PSeye ?! Isn't it supposed to be an innovation that melts planets : \

[devil_angel]

Fail wtf. How can it be same resolution and have lower FPS than PSeye ?! Isn't it supposed to be an innovation that melts planets : \

I'm not aware of PS eye's capabilities.....Is it capable of recogonizing more than one person/controller?

[TRMNTR]

Fail wtf. How can it be same resolution and have lower FPS than PSeye ?! Isn't it supposed to be an innovation that melts planets : \

 

So innovation equals better technical specs? It isn't supposed to be the PS Eye. It does what it does and with those specs.

[KnackChap]

I'm not aware of PS eye's capabilities.....Is it capable of recogonizing more than one person/controller?

there were games on eyetoy/ps2 where 4p could play simultaneously, shouldn't be any different for the ps3 eye. as for using it with move, 4 players can play simultaneously only using the move controller but only 2 can play if you're using the move controller + navigator.

[devil_angel]

there were games on eyetoy/ps2 where 4p could play simultaneously, shouldn't be any different for the ps3 eye. as for using it with move, 4 players can play simultaneously only using the move controller but only 2 can play if you're using the move controller + navigator.

SO, the move has a controller and a navigator? Isn't that holding two things at the same time? (and isn't that similar to wii?) Don't tell me all this time being developed and no major improvement other than z-axis depth!

[Choron ka raja]

Fail wtf. How can it be same resolution and have lower FPS than PSeye ?! Isn't it supposed to be an innovation that melts planets : \

 

Innovation doesn't mean better tech, it just means using that tech the better way. You really can't compare kinect with PSeye, its like comparing Move with Wii controller (whatever that is called).

 

SO, the move has a controller and a navigator? Isn't that holding two things at the same time? (and isn't that similar to wii?) Don't tell me all this time being developed and no major improvement other than z-axis depth!

 

 

Adding z-axis depth is quite a drastic improvement if you ask me, but when the same thing(not with the same accuracy though) is possible without any controller in hand, it does look a bit old school.

[devil_angel]

Innovation doesn't mean better tech, it just means using that tech the better way. You really can't compare kinect with PSeye, its like comparing Move with Wii controller (whatever that is called).

Adding z-axis depth is quite a drastic improvement if you ask me, but when the same thing(not with the same accuracy though) is possible without any controller in hand, it does look a bit old school.

 

I'm still not convinced.....sony wouldn't go to all this trouble just to get an improved version of motion gaming tech.....there must be some party-piece which they haven't revealed yet!