Xbox 360 Kinect: Gaming into the Future

Xbox 360 Kinect: Gaming Into the Future

Christopher M. Hodges

DeVry University

Xbox 360 Kinect: Gaming Into the Future

Imagine Mom, Dad, and the kids all enjoying a family game night, playing a game on the Xbox 360 Kinect. Kids can laugh at their parents and share pictures through their Xbox 360, while their parents jump around playing a video game and having fun all at the same time. Finally, gamers can feel like they are a part of a video game and bring their family together while being active all in one, thanks to the Microsoft Xbox 360 Kinect. The Xbox 360 Kinect Sensor was released in November 4, 2010, giving families the opportunity to have active gaming experiences together. All the pieces started falling into place in June 2010, when Microsoft ceremoniously unveiled the final name and its November 4th release date (Miller, 2010). This gave back the ability to get families active, but, also, to spend time together in a fun and even educational way. This has been oneselfs fun for days, playing interactive video games and getting a good workout at the same time. It takes the original focus of playing video games with controllers sitting on the couch to requiring more movement and mobility to promote a healthier way to have fun in doors. Xbox 360 Kinect is a great experience for all ages by making people active, advanced technology removes the controller, and the ability to connect with friends and families.

First off, Xbox 360 Kinect has a lot of activities available since it requires players to stand up in front of the sensor just to interact with a game. No matter what game someone plays, they are being active throughout the game. The sensor provides families with the opportunity to get a good workout and have fun all at the same time. Microsoft has taken a big step with providing a merge of games, finally removing the controller.

Surely, Microsoft Kinect has pushed the envelope with allowing companies to bring workout routines from major athletic trainers into video games. Every game played on the Kinect will have everyone's muscles aching once they have been playing for an hour. Families or just couples can now enjoy a more interactive gaming experience. This now provides your less active gamers to finally get off the couch and have fun while they workout.

The Kinect, on the other hand, has been very limited with the style of games provided. The more hardcore gamers are not really getting to enjoy the aspect of the activity with games focused on families. It has been geared more towards the beginning gamers, families, and children. Space can be an issue if the gamer lives in a small apartment. They will have to make room so the Kinect games can be enjoyed. I measured the clear space that I felt was necessary to play a variety of games and found it to be a minimum of four meters deep and two meters wide. Your Shape: Fitness Evolved, a fitness game from Ubisoft, required the most depth (I had to move my couch into the kitchen), while playing with two players in Kinect Adventures - a game that had my partner and I steering a raft by shuffling across its deck and avoiding obstacles in a gauntlet by ducking, jumping, and dodging - required the most width. If you live in a suburban home that's probably not a big deal. For a family like mine that lives in a downtown high-rise, it means we have to move all of our furniture whenever we want to play (Sapieha, 2010).

Secondly, Xbox 360s Kinect sensor has become a major advancement in technology. Microsoft has put together RGB VGA camera with a resolution of 640 x 480, a depth sensor of the same resolution, and a multi-array microphone into a single peripheral that can gauge distance and motion, digitally map a 3D space, and even visually recognize players and accept voice commands; and it does it all in real time (Lowe, 2010). It's like seeing the future with only having to wave your hand to start a game. The sensor has moved gaming to a new level making the human body the controller. Kinect also brings with it the ability to recognize the gamer, this feature is called Kinect ID and Microsoft has made it easy to use and setup. To setup the Kinect the Calibration card, which is provided, is a helpful tool to ensure the gaming space is adequate. The Kinect Tuner allows players to modify the Kinect settings to fix any issue with the gaming space. If the calibration card proves insufficient, players can access the Kinect Tuner, a new feature built into the Xbox 360 dashboard that fine tunes player tracking, audio identification, and calibration. The Kinect Tuner essentially allows users to identify problems with their play space, indicating that they are too far the sensor, if they can't be identified, if objects are obscuring them, or if the room is too loud (Lowe, 2010).

Surprisingly, the facial recognition feature, also known as Kinect ID, allows players to be logged-in to any Kinect game by only standing in front of the sensor so it can scan the player. The sensor's ability to recognize players and detect their motions with an impressive amount of accuracy, capturing the slightest movement of their bodies, has made Kinect a big impression on family oriented gamers. Kinect makes this sort of control possible by recognizing and delineating joints in the human frame it understands

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