What's new in games?
| 17 December 2011
Jaw dropping would seem a good way to describe the Kinect 2 gossip. Apparently, if rumours are to be believed, the next generation of Microsoft’s full body motion tracking system will be able to lip-read!
This means the system will be able to understand expressions such as anger or happiness and also take voice commands to a whole new level. There will also be vastly improved motion sensing, including a much more accurate camera response to which way the player is facing – so say for example, if you had to walk backwards in a game.
Currently, the Kinect is limited in the amount of data it can stream per second to the Xbox 360 due to the restrictions of the USB connection. The result is that it has to work with a vastly reduced camera resolution (320x240) to maintain a low data footprint because the console can’t process the data quick enough, due to low data rate transmission speeds.
Rumours suggest that the new Kinect will connect to the console differently, allowing for far greater amounts of data to be exchanged and at much faster speeds. The result is that Kinect 2 will be able to process significantly more visual detail every second, meaning more accurate motion tracking and more richly developed features such as lip reading and facial expression recognition.
That’s not where the good news ends. If the gossip rings true, gamers won’t have to pay a penny for Kinect 2 as it will be bundled with the new console.
When will all this be happening? Well, that’s where there’s a difference of opinion. Some sources, including leading magazines, think winter 2012 will be the big launch date. Whereas others, including many industry-based websites, put the launch date at Easter 2013. What is interesting is that both sides agree that e3, the famous LA-based games show, will be where the first big ‘reveal’ will take place, and that’s only about 6 months away. Keep your fingers crossed. Then again, if Kinect 2 is half as good as the rumours suggest, you won’t need digits anyway....
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