I remember when I grew up, I was surrounded by new technologies like Atari or Color Computer. Games like Donkey Kong, Zaxxon, and Pitfall were all the rage. The consoles got faster, the graphics got more realistic, and the games were out of this world, but we were still tethered to the console with a stick and a few buttons.
Throughout the game the Nintendo Wii. Revolutionary in a way because it went from being just a sitting console, to being an interactive console. With a wireless joystick in hand, you can now play golf or, with a special board, do yoga and even exercise. It caused a stir in the market, but no one took it seriously, but the big boys were watching.
PlayStation will announce its interactive game controller called MOVE which is based, at least in principle, on the Wii. You’ll have a wireless handheld controller that can track your every move and translate it into a lightsaber, tennis racket, skiing, and all sorts of other games. This controller combines advanced motion controllers, a dynamic color-changing dial, vibration feedback, and easy-to-use buttons, but you still have to hold on to it, just like the Wii.
Taking the game beyond this point would require us to remove the controller entirely. Imagine playing a game of Kung-Fu without having to hold a controller. Imagine having an exercise routine on television and it will tell you if you are not going fast enough, if you bend your knees more or even if you lost a few inches around the waist. Take it one step further and you can talk to him, order movies online, record TV shows, and even recognize you and ask how you are when you walk into the room. It sounds a bit fun, but it’s scary, but that’s the new Kinect device for Xbox 360.
Kinect was originally leaked under a different name called Natal and it promised the world a new experience. After a few years of tweaking, the Kinect seems to have fixed all the problems. Unlike Sony’s Eyetoy, which didn’t even take off, the Kinect uses multiple cameras to follow you in three dimensions. It also doesn’t work like a typical webcam. It uses infrared light to illuminate the room and this is what allows you to see in a variety of lighting conditions. With powerful software, it will lock and track 48 points on your body in real time for up to two players. It is also equipped with a microphone so you can talk to your Xbox. The center of the camera is also motorized and has facial recognition so it can follow you as you walk around the room. Don’t panic yet.
Other interactive benefits include “VideoKinect” so you can talk to people on other Xbox machines, Windows Live Messenger. To make things cooler, you can watch the same movie together. Buying movies is very easy. You simply tell it that you want to watch a Netflix movie and then choose which one by raising your hand in the air and choosing the movie you want, as if you were pulling it off the shelf.
Sadly, this will be the end of the Xbox360 updates. They can only do so much and this technology will push the limits of what Xbox360 does. That said, the Xbox 720 being designed will do this and much, much more. What else can there be?