This year for Christmas I received the Xbox Kinect (plus Kinect Adventures). I would recommend this product to anybody. It comes with a copy of Kinect Adventures, which is a pretty decent starter game. It is more than capable of keeping one occupied until they are able to spring for another game. The only downside is that there are only five mini games, and variations on those games, so it can become repetitive fairly quickly.
The Kinect itself has plenty of interesting features. The first of which is of course the motion sensing technology. It works great, and was able to pick up my movements with no trouble. Pausing the game or exiting to the dashboard is as easy as holding my left arm at a 45 degree angle. Selecting options is easy as well, requiring my hand to hover over my choice, while a time counts up to give me a chance to change my mind or make sure I'm choosing the option I want. I'm sure the quality of the motion control will vary based on the programming of the individual games, but so far everything has worked wonderfully.
The second feature Kinect offers is the voice recognition. Simply say "Xbox" while in the Kinect hub and a prompt of commands appears on the screen. If you can read it, you can say it and the Xbox promptly obeys. I have had no trouble getting it to follow my commands so far, and have never had to repeat myself. My only wish is that it had more command options, such as powering down the system. Also, I've noticed that while I can open and close the tray with voice command, if a game is in the tray, the only option is to play the game. While, no big deal, because I'd be required to get up to remove the game regardless of what voice command offers, it was a little bit of a quirk.
The final and most standout feature in my opinion is the facial recognition. I simply wave at the Xbox after turning it on and it recognizes me and logs me in under my Xbox LIVE account. This feature is not perfect and the level of light in the area can affect it's ability to recognize an individual user. To remedy this, Xbox offers users the option to go through the memorization process multiple times to allow for multiple levels of light and conditions. For example, when I originally went through the facial recognition process, it was evening and the only thing illuminating my living room was artificial light. The next day, while the room was filled with sunlight, I attempt to log in and the Kinect did not recognize me. I simply went through the process again and now the Kinect recognizes me day and night.
Overall, I think the connect is a wonderful addition to the Xbox, and definitely advances it in the console wars between Xbox 360, Wii, and the PS3. While, it is too soon to tell, I believe the capabilities of the Kinect has to potential to set Xbox miles ahead of the competition.
The Kinect itself has plenty of interesting features. The first of which is of course the motion sensing technology. It works great, and was able to pick up my movements with no trouble. Pausing the game or exiting to the dashboard is as easy as holding my left arm at a 45 degree angle. Selecting options is easy as well, requiring my hand to hover over my choice, while a time counts up to give me a chance to change my mind or make sure I'm choosing the option I want. I'm sure the quality of the motion control will vary based on the programming of the individual games, but so far everything has worked wonderfully.
The second feature Kinect offers is the voice recognition. Simply say "Xbox" while in the Kinect hub and a prompt of commands appears on the screen. If you can read it, you can say it and the Xbox promptly obeys. I have had no trouble getting it to follow my commands so far, and have never had to repeat myself. My only wish is that it had more command options, such as powering down the system. Also, I've noticed that while I can open and close the tray with voice command, if a game is in the tray, the only option is to play the game. While, no big deal, because I'd be required to get up to remove the game regardless of what voice command offers, it was a little bit of a quirk.
The final and most standout feature in my opinion is the facial recognition. I simply wave at the Xbox after turning it on and it recognizes me and logs me in under my Xbox LIVE account. This feature is not perfect and the level of light in the area can affect it's ability to recognize an individual user. To remedy this, Xbox offers users the option to go through the memorization process multiple times to allow for multiple levels of light and conditions. For example, when I originally went through the facial recognition process, it was evening and the only thing illuminating my living room was artificial light. The next day, while the room was filled with sunlight, I attempt to log in and the Kinect did not recognize me. I simply went through the process again and now the Kinect recognizes me day and night.
Overall, I think the connect is a wonderful addition to the Xbox, and definitely advances it in the console wars between Xbox 360, Wii, and the PS3. While, it is too soon to tell, I believe the capabilities of the Kinect has to potential to set Xbox miles ahead of the competition.
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