January 29, 2011

Meet the biggest innovation in consumer electronics since 2007 when Apple introduced the iPhone: Kinect. Is it Cylon on top of your TV or you are happy to see me?

Currently we are at the 7th generation of video gaming consoles where Sony Playstation 3 (PS3), Xbox 360 and Nintendo Wii are ruling the market. These consoles, particularly Sony Playstation 3 and Xbox 360, have very powerful computing hardware, including several CPU cores and ultra-effective shaders (massive parallel processors of pixels and vertices) so in fact the main hardware of Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 hasn’t't changeed fundamentally in the last 5 years, but instead Microsoft and Sony are releasing evolutionary improvements that add improved hardware interfaces and improved chipsets that consume less energy and place more chips into one.

A couple of years ago Nintendo released the Wii console, that although being weaker in computing power than Xbox 360 and Playstation, has managed to win many new gamers, particularly among people who never gamed before. Why? Because Wii introduced controllers with motion control. All of a sudden people didn’t have to sit on the coach to play games but they could actually use their body, via controllers, to move objects in virtual game space. Furthermore some controllers were shaped just like objects in the game – like guns, guitars, bats, etc – so tactile feedback was provided. In reality Nintendo Wii however instead of taking away business from hard-core gaming consoles – Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 – has mostly generated new gaming users who wouldn’t consider buying gaming console, but thanks to controllers with motion sensing – they did.

When it comes to hard-core gaming consoles – Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 – i.e. consoles with huge graphics power so that they can produce photo-realistic graphics in games, the situation was such that Sony Playstation 3 was  winning until recently, because it is equipped with BlueRay disc playing ability. A few years ago the HD disc wars were not over and Microsoft was promoting HD DVD and Sony was promoting their own standard – Blueray. After that HD disc wars were over and Blueray came out victoriously. Clearly many people were picking Sony Playstation 3 over Xbox 360 because in this way they were getting “free” Blueray player. To this day Xbox 360 doesn’t support Blueray (probably because Blueray uses commie technology of Java and Microsoft is too capitalistic for that) but increasingly nobody gives a monkey about Blueray, including Apple who is also not supporting it, because nowadays a new era is upon us: HD videos over Internet: buying and downloading for offline viewing. A full-HD movie usually takes nowadays less than an hour and many people can watch it streamed without even downloading.

So, when Microsoft and Sony realized that Nintendo’s Wii was eating away their market share, they started to think what to do to innovate. Both Microsoft and Sony started then, a few years ago, developing (and partially buying via takeover of smaller companies) technologies of full-body motion sensing without any controllers. Everybody was expecting that both Sony and Microsoft will release it at the same time, but no: Sony has failed and released instead “Sony Move” (a ball of light that you have to keep in your hand)… but Microsoft has succeeded in the end: Kinect, formerly know as “Project Natal”, was first to market, and is now on sale and you can buy it too in nearby electronics stores or online.

One interesting side note: Kinect, that actually is an external elongated box that you put on top of your TV or some other stable place where it cannot fall, has 2 built-in cameras, 4 microphones and an infrared “eye” that looks similarly to that one used in Cylon robots in Battlestar Galactica / Caprica TV series. Furthermore, similarly like robots, Kinect has a motor that makes it possible to follow you around the room by moving the whole Kinect in your direction. So, as a side effect, surely Kinect is a precursor to Cylon-like robotic vision.

How to get Kinect? Well, you need Xbox 360 for that, and if you don’t have one you can buy a bundle of Xbox 360 and Kinect in one box (and in that bundles currently on sale there is the new model that means: much less power consumption and quieter operation).

If you already have “older” Xbox 360 then to connect Kinect (BTW: “Kinect” name comes from combination of words “connect”, and “kinetic” = relating to motion) to your Xbox you have to plug in power supply because USB port of old Xbox 360 doesn’t have enough power. However if you have the new model of Xbox, then it already has a special USB port especially prepared for Kinect.

Once you have your Kinect connected to Xbox you can calibrate it and you can start playing games without holding any sensor in your hand. Apart from game playing it is possible to control the whole user interface of Xbox (“dashboard”) just with your body by using “wave to Kinect” gestures. Apart from game controller, you can use Kinnect to make video calls and to voice-control your console.

So why is Kinect revolutionary? Because it is realisation of old dream to use body without having to touch any hardware, to control computers. In several science fiction movies one could see for example fitness training holograms and at the same time scanning the body of that person. The same can be done with fitness software for Kinect. And it’s now, not in the future, not science-fiction. Furthermore the motion sensing done by Kinect is flawless and even though it has only a 640×480  resolution camera, it is scanning many thousands of points on your body, including 3D depth (when of the most striking realisations of playing Kinect games is that their have depth, that you feel depth, that these games are not flat).

While the precision of Kinect is not very high – it can’t usually see state of your fingers – it is just first generation full-body controller-less motion sensing technology – there are already some rumours that the next generation of Kinect will have much more exact-scanning and will make it possible to “see” individual fingers too.

Before you buy Kinect the following considerations are important: you (realistically) need  8 feet distance and free space (not crowded with furniture) to play, so if you have tiny flat in Manhattan – forget it. Furthermore you need a big display (TV or monitor) or projector/beamer because you have to be able to read instructions from the screen (like “touch this area” or “touch this point”).

When it comes to controlling user interface via Kinect: usually it is just raising your hand, moving it over some big button and waiting motionlessly until it is “pressed”.

Do you remember that old sayings that gaming makes you fat and it’s an unhealthy activity for your body, because you are sitting the whole time? Forget it all! Some Kinect games, like Fighters Uncaged for example, require so much body movement that you are actually sweating.

Probably in 2012 also Sony and Nintendo will release controller-less full-body motion sensors similar to Kinect, but as of now: Microsoft did it: Microsoft and their Kinect is the king of the hill of video gaming. Next, Kinect for PC will be released too, but due to the large diversity of computing power of PC computers, it will be more challenging.

This time you have one big excuse to play video games: thanks to Kinect gaming can also be healthy!

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