Kinect is scheduled to be launched worldwide on November 4, 2010 with number of packages, which are availble here
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Development:
Kinect was first announced by Microsoft on June 1, 2009, code named "Project Natal", named after Brazillian city of Natal. Natal was also chosen because it means "of or relating to birth" and according to Microsoft "Its the birth of next generation of home entertainment". At E3 announcement, Microsoft said that over 100 software development kits have been shiped to game developers.
It was also rumored that a new a release of Xbox 360 console will also be launched with Project Natal, however Microsoft rejected these reports and also said that KInect will be compatible with all Xbox 360 consoles.
During Kinect's development , project team experimentally adapted many games to Kinect based control schemes to help evaluate usability. These games include Beautiful Katamari and Space Invaders Extreme, which were demonstrated at the Tokyo Game Show in September 2009.
Initially it was planned that Kinect will contain a dedicated microprocessor to perform skeletal maping but in January, 2010 it was revealed that Kinect's processing will be handled by one of the cores of Xbox 360's Xenon CPU. According to Microsoft, Kinect will only add a load of 10-15% on the Xbox 360's computing sources. Many observers commented that this step will effect the function of Kinect on pre-existing games.
On March 25, 2010, Microsoft sent a date flier for an event called "World Premiere "Project Natal' for Xbox 360 Experience". The event took place on June 13, 2010. It was announced that the system will officially be called Kinect, a combinations of words "kinetic" and "connect", which describe the main aspects of the project. The launch date was also annonced there.
Technology:
Kinect sensor is a horizontal bar connected to a small base with a motorized pivot, and it is designed to be positioned lengthwise below the video display. The device features:
· An RGB camera
· Depth Sensor
· Multi-array microphone
These devices allow it to provide full body 3D motion capture, facial recognition and voice recognition.
The depth sensor consists of an infrared projector combined with a monochrome CMOS sensor allows the Kinect sensor to see in 3D under any ambient light conditions. The sensing range of the depth sensor is adjustable. the Kinect software is capable of automatically calibrating the sensor based on game-play and the player's physical environment, such presence of furniture.
According to information supplied to retailers, the Kinect is capable of simultaneously tracking up to six people, including two active players for motion analysis with a feature extraction of 20 joints per player.
Review By BogicaUe
Well project Natal is something very simple , yet a lot of fun.
It works the same as a Wii but without any controllers in your hands.
How does it do it? Simple , its equipped with a camera that recognizes our movement ,
captures it and uses it as a controller . For example moving your hands left and right
can scroll through lists (movies , music ,pictures etc) . While in games it creates an amazing
way to play them . The link on the top of the review will show you how much fun it actually is.
There is also the feature to scan your own equipment such as a skateboard and use it in game .
And there is also the feature of video chatting such as we see everyday on skype , msn etc
There is also another project that Microsoft has been working on:
You can actually interact with the computer , in this case a boy named Milo , talk to him , get responses from him as if you were talking to a real person.
Now the question remains... Is this the future of gaming or will this ruin it???
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