History of Computers - Kinect

Created by Bailey Slawin 2016

The Kinect is a motion-sensing device designed by Microsoft for the Xbox 360 and Xbox One. It uses multiple cameras and infrared light to capture the player’s movements, while its special algorithms collect the data and interpret specific gestures in order to control the game.

Overview

As a result of a collaboration between Microsoft and PrimeSense, an Israeli company and leader in 3-D-sensing and recognition technologies, the Kinect was released in November 2010 as an accessory to the XBox 360 (and later the Xbox One) and introduced a new way to game: using your body as the controller. Previously called "Project Natal" for its innovative qualities, the Kinect sought to completely transform the way people game by making the controller obsolete, and thus separating itself from its competitor the Wii, another gaming console that involves motion sensing technology. With its webcam like setup, the Kinect uses multiple cameras, infrared lights, and microphones to record data from the player and, using a complex set of algorithms and a microprocessor, translate it to movement on the screen, allowing players to navigate menus and control the game using only body movements and their voices.

How It Works

"1. Microphone array 

Four mics pinpoint where voices or sounds are coming from while filtering out background noise.

2. IR emitter 

Projects a pattern of infrared light into a room. As the light hits a surface, the pattern becomes distorted, and the distortion is read by the depth camera.

3. Depth camera 

Analyzes IR patterns to build a 3-D map of the room and all objects and people within it.

4. Tilt motor 

Automatically adjusts based on the object in front of it. If you’re tall, it tilts the box up. If you’re short, it knows to angle down.

5. USB cable 

Transmits data to the Xbox via an unencrypted feed, which makes it relatively easy to use the Kinect with other devices.

6. Color camera 

Like a webcam, this captures a video image. The Kinect uses that information to get details about objects and people in the room."

Significance

With the introduction of the Kinect, the gaming industry was forever changed. The Kinect opened doors to exploring virtual reality gaming as seen with the integration of its technology with the Hololens augmented reality head mounted display (HMD). While the Kinect's motion sensing ability's may make for fun, hands-free gameplay, its unique software can also be used for purposes beyond gaming. As opposed to its previously high price, complex 3-D technology became much more easily obtainable with the release of the Kinect, which only costed $150. This excited roboticists who had been struggling to find an easy, reasonably priced way to allow their robots to create 3-D maps as they moved. Because of the Kinect's readily available advanced software, people are more able to build robots like the KinectBot, which "uses the Kinect’s sensors to detect humans, respond to gesture and voice commands, and generate 3-D maps of what it is seeing as it rolls through a room." While this has a wide range of applications, the most useful seems to be searching for survivors after a natural disaster.

Links

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kinect#cite_note-MsPress-19 https://support.xbox.com/en-US/xbox-360/accessories/kinect-sensor-components https://web.archive.org/web/20100605091508/http://www.xbox.com/en-US/live/projectnatal/ http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/technology/2009/06/microsofte3.html