230°

Kinect Controls Work Great... in a Bubble

The idea of controlling your console with gestures in a neat concept, but it also comes with a slew of technical challenges.

At the top of the list of issues that Microsoft's Kinect controller for the Xbox 360 faces is the problem of interference from people not in the virtual driver's seat of the console.

What happens when you're trying to control the Xbox 360 with gestures and someone walks in front of you or behind you? Right now? Things go haywire, but the person demonstrating the technology to me at last week's GamesCom said that they are still tweaking the interface.

Omega45657d ago

Luckily when you're at home you won't have crowds of people constantly walking behind you.

Nike5657d ago

If they're marketing the device at families, then I think you will.

captain-obvious5657d ago (Edited 5657d ago )

thats a nice spin you got in there omega

but since MS market this thing as a casual/family/party peripheral
so yes you well have things going on in the same spot
and you'll have people walking behind you

KingME5657d ago (Edited 5657d ago )

What happens when you are driving your favorite driving game going around a hairpin turn and your cousin walks directly in front of the TV?

What happens when you are going for that head shot in MW2 and your sister bumps your shoulder when she sits next to you?

What happens when you are using PS Move and someone stands between you and the camera?

I mean, really?

Some of you people act like because it is marketed to families that it is suppose to compensate for total craziness within the household.

We play the wii all the time, but we don't walk in front of each other while someone is playing, And I'm sure that if you did, there would be some sore of gaming backlash to it.

Godmars2905657d ago (Edited 5657d ago )

Not including roommates, parents, kids, friends, pets and assorted furnisher...

5657d ago
jack_burt0n5657d ago (Edited 5657d ago )

yeah but you need so much space like 14ft of open terrain.

edit:
listen all power to omega he tried it, he wants to buy it thats all fine, unless his alt account is mandatory install ppl need to give him a break.

Baka-akaB5657d ago (Edited 5657d ago )

well to be fair in his parents' basement surrounded by MS posters and ads material , he wont have that issue indeed

niceguywii605657d ago (Edited 5657d ago )

Yes families have dozens or hundreds of people around the TV LOL With unnatural lighting and cameras

I feel sorry for PS3 fanboys. Does anybody find it strange PS3 fanboys have this mentally ill obsession with Kinect? It's not normal and proves they're very worried about it.

twoface5657d ago (Edited 5657d ago )

Do you need a dozen to affect the controls?

How about ps move? Does it get affected by people moving around in the background, or does its algorithm recognize the balls of light as first priority?

Nike5657d ago

Apparently (in it's current stage - I don't know how much tweaking they can do since it's only 3 months from release), it only takes one person. Read the description again:

"What happens when you're trying to control the Xbox 360 with gestures and someONE walks in front of you or behind you? Right now? Things go haywire..."

Bellcross5657d ago

Kinect is perfect for you, you got no friends or family.

Milo and Skittles will keep you company at night.

pathetic troll.

Qui-Gon Jim5657d ago

The article mentions that all the demos units are located in areas enclosed by clear plastic. Plastic is opaque (not transparent) to infra-red. The Kinect system uses infra-red light for the 3D imaging. The camera cannot, therefore, see the crowds. Besides that, the software ignores anything beyond a certain distance, anyway.

The demo was being thrown off by the camera operator standing behind the couch. If you are playing at home, there very well may be people standing behind the couch watching. There's a simple enough fix, just make sure people aren't standing behind you, but it may cause problems for people, especially if people can't figure out what's wrong.

btk5657d ago

But Omega4 - I thought it could track 6 players... Seems like with only one a background person is going to be a problem.

And no - in my house there is a lot of people moving around. With four kids - if one is shouting at anyone who as much as cast a shadow in the living room because his Kinect is diskinecting... well - lets just say I am happy that I will be getting Move.

+ Show (7) more repliesLast reply 5657d ago
jrbeerman115657d ago

Sounds like this tech may be a lil ahead of its time, hope it works out for em.

zootang5657d ago

Maybe you're behind the times?

jneul5657d ago

its ten whole years behind, it's already been done and proved not to work, controler-less gaming is not new and eyetoy did it first

badkolo5657d ago Show
divideby05657d ago

when are we going to read something positive about Kinetic
I aint buying one since there is no killer app, its over priced and it dont play any REAL games.
I just am tired of reading all the negative press about it and waiting to read something that would remotely think about buying one

Pennywise5657d ago

The two people still defending this product are getting to look pretty sad. MS will never learn about taking shortcuts and rushing products.

Show all comments (31)
40°

Microsoft has revoked the DMCA takedown that forced an indie Minecraft-like off Steam

Microsoft claimed the indie game uses "Minecraft content."

90°

Microsoft Expects More Xbox Content and Services Revenue Decline Despite Game Pass Growth

During the conference call for Q2 of FY2026, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and CFO Amy Hood talked about the future of the xbox business.

Read Full Story >>
simulationdaily.com
dveio20d ago

«partly offset by growth in Xbox Game Pass.»

I take it with a big grain of salt. They've been reporting nothing about GP, only words.

We still don't have any hardware numbers, no software units sold, no subscription numbers, no PC vs console GP, we don't have any profit numbers ... we literally have nothing but overall revenue and words.

Reaper22_20d ago

Does it really matter? Are you shareholder? Gamers have to stop acting like these companies owe us something. Its obvious everything is down. Thats completely normal in all businesses. It will be up and down again.

dveio20d ago

Yes, since they don't get tired spewing out word salad 12 months a year.

"Biggest launch", "millions of players", "growth of", "here look our revenue", "We buy ABK", "We'll bring you 1st party every quarter", "Biggest this, biggest that", "We always wanted to share games with everyone", "We're growing", "biggest launch", "millions of players", ... you get the point.

They either shut up.

Or deliver numbers like Nintendo, Playstation, hell even Tencent does.

On a sidenote:

Just years ago, Microsoft wanted to buy out a whole lot more than just Zenimax and ABK. They even wanted to push Sony out and collect Nintendo in.

You bet your butt I'm demanding numbers.

20d ago
Christopher20d ago (Edited 20d ago )

In an article discussing industry matters, telling people to not worry or want better information on the industry is antithesis to the whole point of it. I'm going to try this out with all those review articles. I mean, who cares about scores, just try it out for yourself, that's the only opinion that matters.

dveio20d ago

«In an article discussing industry matters, telling people to not worry or want better information on the industry is antithesis to the whole point of it.»

Well.

That's it.

Case closed!

Profchaos20d ago (Edited 20d ago )

He might be a shareholder you can get a etorro or whatever online platform about and throw 20 bucks into Microsoft boom shareholder

BehindTheRows20d ago (Edited 20d ago )

Yes, it matters. This is business! Some gamers have to stop acting like it only matters when the company they prefer wants to play ball.

Eonjay20d ago

The fact that shareholders are also in the dark im sure is also completely fine with you and Microsoft doesn't owe them anything either amirite? Not withstanding how silly and potentially inappropriate it is for someone to defend a public company from hiding sales information, you are also completely wrong.

+ Show (7) more repliesLast reply 20d ago
dveio20d ago

@varora

Thank you.

For over 10 years we've been in those quarterly discussions.

Yet Nintendo and Playstation are the only manufacturers that deliver numbers, that deliver proof, that give us numerical baselines to either brag about or compliment them.

The only fraction that's been pulling doooozens of doooozens, hundreds and thousands of word salad bribberish comments out of their Xbox'clestotitis fan cloud is the die hard Xbox community.

And by doing that they're even defending that downward spiral Xbox is suffering from.

Bring the numbers buddies, or else just stfu.

Reaper22_20d ago

Nintendo and Playstation can deliver all the numbers they want. It doesnt matter much because hardware isn't the only way to make money in the industry. Maybe decades ago but not now. That's why you see sony putting more and more games on PC. They know its the games that keeps the money coming. Consoles stagnate but not the software.
The fact is that Microsoft was and is never gonna outsell them. The competition's console sales doesnt really affect Microsoft"s profit margin much if at all.. Look at how many more consoles sony sells and then go look at what they report in profit. The gap is nowhere near the gap in console sold. Hardware doesn't dictate market trends.

IRetrouk20d ago

Microsoft doesn't report xbox profit, so how can we compare them.......
Console sales lead to those software sales, thats not a theory its a fact, old days, these days... doesn't matter, one company is doing much better than the other, and thats partly because of said console sales...

rlow120d ago

I really think Call of Duty underperforming, the raise in subscription prices and Hoods ridiculous expectations of 30% return. Is what led to the lower numbers.

Reaper22_20d ago

Maybe, but COD sold 8 million on xbox which counted for 40% of the sales.

IRetrouk20d ago

Not even close to being true

BehindTheRows20d ago

Show us the article/sources with these sales numbers.

Chevalier20d ago

Could you show us the profit charts while you're at it? Would love to see this 'gap' you mentioned. Should be easy to show that right?

Eonjay20d ago

This whole report is confusing to me until I remember content and service are separate. Content went down... okay we get that because COD 'bombed' but Services went up because of the price increase which mitigated most of the lost from the cancelations. Okay got it.

I wouldn't blame the results on Amy but she sure as hell had unreasonable expectations.

GamePass has put Xbox in a bad position where the absolutely need PlayStation to make their numbers. So if a big game like COD bombs... they got a problem.

The fact that their service revenue (GamePass) can't drive growth on its own is a huge red flag. That was supposed to be the whole point.

20d ago Replies(1)
170°

Microsoft Gaming Revenue Drops 9% Year-on-Year, Content and Services Down 5%, Xbox Hardware Down 32%

Microsoft announced its financial results for Q2 of fiscal year 2026, including an update on its gaming business.

Read Full Story >>
simulationdaily.com
21d ago Replies(7)
1Victor20d ago (Edited 20d ago )

🚨🚓🎼 🎶 🎼 👇

raWfodog20d ago

I don't why people waste their time replying to the alt-account clown. Their comment is going to get flagged as spam as it always does and those comments (and all replies) will eventually disappear. Better to ignore them and carry on constructive debate with those not scared to post with a permanent account.

1Victor20d ago

@raW: “ I don't why people waste their time replying to the alt-account clown.”
He suffer from from keyboardrhrea and can’t wait the average month of clean posting to have a permanent account.

.
@taco: “ Funny that this website actually works again when there's prime opportunity to slam on Xbox.
LOL it's all admins ever give a shit about
The funny thing is that it’s at random at least for me, sometimes is working find and other times it doesn’t let me do anything even flag the spammers.
This isn’t a us vs them it’s a everyone is in the swamp up to the neck

Tacoboto20d ago

Funny that this website actually works again when there's prime opportunity to slam on Xbox.

LOL it's all admins ever give a shit about

+ Show (1) more replyLast reply 20d ago
Outside_ofthe_Box21d ago

Pretty surprising on revenue and content being down. Obviously hardware being down is expected, but you'd think that the GamePass price hike, CoD, and things such horizon 5 coming to PS5 would drive things up. No wonder MS is all-in on the multiplat strategy, don't really have choice at this point. There might be another GP price hike this year.

SimulationDaily21d ago

COD is likely the issue. It appears BO7 is doing significantly worse than BO6. Game Pass is apparently growing, so the problem isn't there.

21d ago
SimulationDaily21d ago (Edited 21d ago )

@Varora: What you "hear" (from your uncle who works at Nintendo?) is irrelevant when the CFO of Microsoft says the opposite in the conference call.
Incidentally, "content and services" are down, not just services, which include Call of Duty. If you don't know how to interpret financials, don't try 😂

Edit: Oh wait... another troll account made 46 minutes ago. I really need to learn to check before engaging. 😂

21d ago
Kurt Russell20d ago

I noped my way out on the last price hike. Whilst Ultimate was convenient for a while being also able to Play on PC, it became too rich for my blood.

CrashMania21d ago

Wonder how the goalposts will be moved this time, it shifted from exclusives and console sales, to revenue, where now then.

Lightning7721d ago

No goal post. It was down last January also. Amy Hood predicted this was gonna happen. You gave us and downs, that's simply how it works.

ocelot0720d ago (Edited 20d ago )

Think it was down last January but I don't know why. There is probably a genuine reason for it.

DivineHand12521d ago

There is no incentive to buy into a closed ecosystem with no exclusives. I wish they would just make windows lite or steam os bootable on the Xbox so long time fans who still own the console can get some enjoyment.

Lightning7721d ago

Closed ecosystem? How's it closed?

__y2jb20d ago (Edited 20d ago )

All consoles are closed eco systems. This in itself is not a problem but a closed eco system without exclusives is pointless when there’s alternatives that have them.

NotoriousWhiz20d ago

That's why xbox's next (and final) "console" will actually be a PC.

Christopher20d ago

This is also why Microsoft has been marketing really hard for the elimination of exclusives in general. They are out of the console business and into publishing games and subscription services. They need exclusives to die so they can end the battle with console markets.

Lightning7720d ago

@yb it's games and services are are on PC, tablets, phones and TV's not just found on Console. Even it's games are on other systems.

It's not closed at all. It's games going everywhere is probably the worst idea MS did you're right about that.

Christopher20d ago

You do know that DivineHand is talking about the hardware losses, not the games, right? The hardware is a closed system. It has seen two digit declines each year for at least 3 years in a row.

derek21d ago

And Microsoft wants to release another super expensive console next gen? Bizzaro world economics over there. Phillip Bartholomew Spencer will be promoted on the strength of these loses. Lol

TriniOutsider21d ago

Their next console has to be released. I could only imagine how much R&D they've already put into their next platform.

derek21d ago

Sunk-cost fallacy in action.

__y2jb20d ago

Yes let’s release so we can lose even more money!

Eonjay20d ago

Its a PC.. I don't think they spent a lot of money to R&D the idea of releasing a prebuilt PC. And they are not subsidizing it so by that token I don't see any reason why they wouldn't release it unless they pivot from hardware altogether.

NotoriousWhiz20d ago

They're just releasing a PC. And they don't intend to subsidize the cost so it's going to priced like any other PC and probably expected to ship PC-like numbers and not the many millions that consoles sell. After that, they'll eventually go third party and xbox hardware will be a thing of the past. Sega says hi.

Show all comments (83)