121–130 of 265 posts
Really? You kill a product right after Apple released something similar on iPhone and glories it?
Did you read the article at all? It says the Kinect sensor lives on in multiple products, including HoloLens and Windows Hello, which is pretty similar to FaceID.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Better let it safely collect dust in a very dark cupboard!
The (updated) article points out that they're still using this stuff in Hololens, Windows Hello, and other gesture-control stuff. I think some of it has made it to the various VR headsets that are coming out for Windows this month.
It also doesn't preclude Microsoft building a Kinect v3 in the future. (It doesn't even preclude Microsoft building a Kinect v3 in secret in the present.)
One thing that hasn't been mentioned: Kinect was Microsoft's reaction to Wii's success. I worked at Microsoft when the first Kinect came out. I spoke with a few members of that team (non-engineers). My question was very clear -- are you expecting this to takeover for controller based gaming? I don't recall all the responses, but I think the overall sentiment was along the lines of "No, but it might", whereas my thoug…
This is my concern with VR not taking off with the mainstream. Many gamers (myself included) want to plop down on the couch and not move around much. Many of the VR experiences coming out require movement, not to mention the initial effort to put on the headset. I'm a huge proponent of VR (backer #238 of the Rift on Kickstarter), but I worry VR headsets will end up in the dustbin with the Kinect for this very reason.…
Most unfortunate. I was hoping to see the technology applied to VR. One of my complaints/observations about VR is that you are a disembodied viewpoint in the VR environment. Something like a Kinect mocap system would add bodily presence in the VR environment.
>> Something like a Kinect mocap system would add bodily presence in the VR environment. I personally spearheaded a couple of projects to make it work with the Vive in this way. Unfortunately, the Kinect's tendency to screw up leg motion, SDK's and API's that read like an old grimoire of Black Magick and worked about just as well, as well as it's proprietary skeleton detection drivers, which prevented me from getting…
I bought the original Kinect, and I bought an Xbox One after the Kinect was no longer mandatory but I later bought a separate Kinect for it. It has moments of transcendence and a lot of failures between those moments. There's a handful of games where the Kinect sensor really makes sense, and a lot of games where it was shoehorned in and wasn't fun. The biggest problem is that it requires a lot of space. It's a pain t…
Another problem is the failure rate and time to failure. Even when we didn't use it often, my unit failed in about 6-8 months. My replacement unit failed in less than 6 months. MS refused to send me a replacement for the 2nd unit. It was a missed opportunity because Kinect was there much earlier than Amazon Echo. MS just wasn't as committed to improving it.
This is a shame. I mean, yeah, it was a pretty awkward gaming accessory, but outside the context of gaming people were doing some pretty fun things with it. A powerful sensor at a ridiculously cheap cost that you could use to create amazing things, provided of course your imagination wasn't weighed down by the latest dumb tech trend. That last statement is just as true now as it was when the Kinect originally came ou…
Another much under-appreciated aspect of Kinect was what an absolutely phenomenal video conferencing system it was - using Skype on Xbox was on par with expensive custom systems. Great speakerphone (that audio recognition) and it would resize the focus on the fly to include all the faces in the room (panning around).
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Similar deal as Sony removing PS3 features after launch: people found a product they loved, for reasons not envisioned by Sony, who was then hell-bent on shutting it down. Even though it seems like Sony's interest to foster a community of high-tech nerds interested in AI and parallel processing, and even though it seems like it's Microsoft's interest in fostering a community of robotics and computer vision nerds, it…
The main reason Sony killed OtherOS was that they began to think it could be used to circumvent copy protection for games. In Kinect's case I'm guessing the pricing was set at least in part with the idea that the games would make up for low-to-negative profit margins.
I think they were worried about people buying them up and not purchasing games.
This is a shame. I mean, yeah, it was a pretty awkward gaming accessory, but outside the context of gaming people were doing some pretty fun things with it. A powerful sensor at a ridiculously cheap cost that you could use to create amazing things, provided of course your imagination wasn't weighed down by the latest dumb tech trend. That last statement is just as true now as it was when the Kinect originally came ou…
"A powerful sensor at a ridiculously cheap cost that you could use to create amazing things, provided of course your imagination wasn't weighed down by the latest dumb tech trend" This. And thanks to software/hardware patents, the technology will die with the product, or remain dormant until the owner will either decide to make something else with it or (not holding my breath) release it under a FOSS license. In the…
The Kinect was a real boon for robotics research. A depth camera that worked pretty well, with skeleton extraction and directional audio? And the price is what!? My lab still uses a first gen Kinect regularly. Thanks to Jamie Shotton and the team for a sensor that made a difference to an incidental community. https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/video/body-part-rec...
Maybe that was MS' problem. People that buy a 1st gen (2010) and still using it. Not upgrading it. Not replacing it. MS can't possibly profit off of it when only 1 kinect per lab is bought.
The only game in my house that could ever utilize it was the original Dancing games from the demos. The last time I saw my daughter playing it, she was holding her phone, and using it for the sensor instead of the kinect through their integrated app.
I asked why she would do that? Just plug in the kinect and use it, don't risk dropping your phone while dancing, but that's not how she wanted to play.