Microsoft Kinect in the news

Microsoft Kinect review

Microsoft Kinect makes your Xbox 360 into something else entirely. No longer is it the clumpy, whirring console exclusively for gamers willing to put up with endless red rings of death. Instead, it becomes the essential console for family gaming, making everything the Wii offers look, well, four years old. And it’s a software update’s throw from making the Xbox 360 the essential set top box, full stop.



Read the full Electricpig.co.uk review of the Microsoft Kinect to find out why we think it’s the gadget of the year.


Microsoft Uses Kinect to Combat Nintendo Wii, Lure Gamer Moms

Microsoft Corp. today starts selling Kinect, a device that lets consumers play video games with their bodies, to help it lure casual gamers and add years to the life of its Xbox 360 gaming console.

Kinect, shaped like a flat, black box, tracks a player’s movement and voice and costs $149.99 by itself or starting at $299.99 when purchased with an Xbox 360 console. Microsoft yesterday boosted its forecast for Kinect sales this year to 5 million units from 3 million after the device sold out in pre- sales at retailers such as Amazon.com Inc. and Best Buy Co.

Read the full Bloomberg article


Microsoft Launches Kinect in the Battle With Google, Apple for the Living Room

Having faced multiple hardware debacles ranging from Zune to Kin, Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) is out to prove naysayers false with Xbox add-on Kinect, a motion sensor and voice recognition technology-based device that allows users to control games and movies with gestures and voice.

The controller-free gaming device Kinect will be available at stores from Thursday at $149.99 with a pack-in game "Kinect Adventures," and if purchased with a 4GB Xbox console, will cost $299.99.

Kinect uses four microphones and a depth camera, color motion camera and a distance sensor to track a user's presence in the room.

Read the full Motley Fool article

Warm up before playing Wii, parents warned

Middle-aged parents must stretch properly to avoid injuries when playing Wii games, doctors have warned.

The Nintendo console – which is expected to be one of the most popular presents again this year – allows players to simulate a range of energetic sports in their own home.

But parents who are not used to regular exercise could seriously hurt themselves if they do not warm up and warm down properly before playing.

Osteopaths have reported a rapid increase in the number of back, neck and elbow injuries among older people who claim to have overexerted themselves on games such as Wii tennis.

Health and fitness experts are warning those older parents playing Wii games with their children to stretch properly to avoid a pain filled festive period.

Read the full story by Martin Evans at the Telegraph.co.uk

Will airports screen for body signals? Researchers hope so

The USA has invested a healthy amount of money into combating the terrorist threat -- certainly a bit more than $100. According to a CNN report, one of a few experimental methods being used to identify suspicious dudes at the airport uses Nintendo's Wii Balance Board (Wii Fit Plus).

Scientists part of the Future Attribute Screening Technology (FAST) program have taken the Wii Fit peripheral and adjusted it to measure how a person shifts their weight. Scientists hope to find "a level of fidgeting that would suggest the need for secondary screening."

BOSTON, Massachusetts (CNN) -- The days of being able to walk through airport security checkpoints while wearing shoes and a jacket could return if an experimental program proves successful, some Department of Homeland Security officials say.

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The Homeland Security-funded project is Future Attribute Screening Technology, or FAST. Instead of focusing on whether you have hidden explosives or whether you're carrying a weapon, sensors and cameras located at security checkpoints would measure the natural signals coming from your body -- your heart rate, breathing, eye movement, body temperature and fidgeting.

Those physiological signs, measured together, will indicate whether you might have the desire or intent to do harm, project manager Robert Burns said.

"There's been a large field of research that ties your physical reactions to your mental state, your emotional state. We're looking for those signals that your body gives off naturally," Burns said.

Read the full story