Kinect - anyone actually utilizing it?

[Austin]

Has anyone actually been using Kinect with the XBOX One? What are your experiences with it so far?

 

When I first hooked up my system I didn't attach the Kinect sensor. A few days later I decided to give it a go. Here are some of the things I've noticed about it so far:

 

1. Response seems to be laggy. When I bring my hand up as a pointer on screen, there is a noticeable delay in movement. It's so slow I end up having to hold my arm up longer than I probably should, and it becomes tired.

2. The Kinect doesn't seem to pick motions up very well when there are no lights on in the room. It recognized my hand coming up in a pitch-black scenario (not counting the light from the TV), but I couldn't grab the screen to scroll it left or right. Pushing the hand in to select an item still worked however.

3. The hand interaction right now feels sloppy. Sometimes it will select a random item (sometimes conveniently the game that's in your disc drive) and you will have to fumble around (or use the voice commands) to get back to where you were.

4. The voice commands are kind of cool, I must admit. Just say "XBOX", and then the system will highlight various terms on the screen in green to let you know that saying those words will activate that command.

5. I'm not a fan of certain applications requiring the kinect sensor, such as the Upload video editor. Yes, I understand the Kinect is needed if you want to get some face-to-face video to add to your gaming clips, but the system will not allow you to even load the application without having the Kinect plugged in. (Keep in mind you only need to use the controller to trim and edit your game clips, which is all I really want to do right now.)

 

Overall, voice commands aside, I'm not too impressed with this new and "improved" Kinect sensor, nor am I appreciative on certain ways Microsoft has chosen to implement it (i.e., requiring it at points where it's not necessary, see my complaint above).

 

What are your thoughts?

[Robocop2]

I can echo most of your statements and sum up my experience thus far with Kinect myself.

 

It does seem a bit wonky and doesn't always immediately go into cursor mode. I'm of the opinion that may be just so that it avoids bringing up the hand icon when its not wanted. The jumpy pointer MAY be related to your positioning of the sensor. I had it below my TV and it was jumping all over the place and selecting things I didn't want it to all the time. I bought one of those TV mounts and it seems to work pretty well now without being jumpy. I wish there were more ways to adjust the sensor's settings than just the setup test (kinda like how the Wiimote had the ability to adjust its sensitivity) because I think that would be alot more helpful.

 

I agree that voice commands are awesome...when they work. I almost have to yell at it to get it to turn on and even that sometimes doesn't work. Other than that though they seem to work pretty well. I like the way they were implemented in Dead Rising 3 with being able to call out and attract the zombies and navigate the menus and such. That part does feel Next Gen to me at least.

 

I don't think it is something they should have made necessary and incuded with the system however. The console functions just fine without using most of those features.

Edited January 8, 2014 by Robocop2

[Austin]

I do have it mounted below the TV, but like you I do intend on getting the mount to place it at the top of my set. I will probably do that next week when payday hits, and I will give an updated impression when I have it mounted higher up.

 

I guess another issue with the device is that when it was "demonstrated" at E3 2013, it seemed extremely responsive, cutting-edge if you will. With my actual hands on, it seems like the exact opposite of what they demoed. What a shame.

[moycon]

I use it to automatically log in and yes I've used it to call out stuff in Dead Rising 3.

That's about it.

It's pretty unnecessary in my opinion

[Metal Ghost]

IMO, stating 'aside from voice' is discounting over half of what Kinect is, so far. I think that unlike how Kinect was first utilized for the most part, ie motion, this second iteration really shines with the voice commands. I'm sure that the motion part will come along, but so far it's with the voice commands that I, personally, have fallen for Kinect 2.0. No, it hasn't been 100% for me, like last night when I asked to watch Disney chanel (for the kids!) and it tuned to Univision instead. But 90% of the time voice works for me. To just tell the tv to change a channel when the remote isn't right by me is fantastic. Of course for those without cable, that's really not going to be value added.

 

I will say that I can't wait until some worthwhile Kinect games are released that my kids can enjoy. No, I didn't play Double Fine's Kinect Party or Kinect Disneland, but my kids sure as heck loved them. So until similar quality (albeit kids) games are released for X1, I'm still moving the new Kinect to hookup the old one on a somewhat regular basis.

 

Eh, I guess that's the price I pay to enjoy Dead Rising 3!!

[Bilnick]

My son and I use Kinect to auto log in and voice commands. It is pretty cool that it recognizes me and logs me in when I enter the room.

 

My wife uses the Kinect 5 days a week on Kinect Fit. She loves it. She did many of the workouts available already on their own (P90x, Jillian Michaels, and others), but having the camera tracking your movements, heartbeat, score, etc. makes it more fun she says. She usually snaps the morning news while she works out.

[Hyper_Eye]

I use a front projector so all of my components are on the back wall of my media room. The kinect cable is not even close to long enough for me to put the kinect where I need it. Until someone comes out with an extension cable my kinect will stay disconnected. I wish the One would stop telling me it is not connected!

 

On the first day I had the console I hooked it up and set it on a stool. It worked well enough. The voice commands definitely make a number of tasks easier.

[Andromeda Stardust]

 

 

What are your thoughts?

I personally believe the Xbox Kinect will make the ultimate spy tool once the NSA learns how to eavsdrop on it.

 

It's 1984 all over again...

[Austin]

I personally believe the Xbox Kinect will make the ultimate spy tool once the NSA learns how to eavsdrop on it.

 

That's a legitimate concern. It's also a reason why I had no desire to utilize the Kinect in the first place. Fortunately, it's not a required utility for most tasks. Unfortunately though, certain applications "need" it when they shouldn't. Thanks, Microsoft!

 

Although, that is why there is a privacy screen. There may be a way to disable voice commands as well for those that are super paranoid (or if you are, disconnect the thing completely). Fortunately for me the privacy screen doubles as a TV mount, so two for one deal there.

 

It's 1984 all over again...

 

This statement would indicate that 1984 (the instances in the book, not the year) actually happened.

[Andromeda Stardust]

For those ultra paranoid people, you could mod the kinect by wiring a toggle switch in line with the microphone so that it cannot record audio unless you want it to, and cover up the camera. That way you've got a blind and deaf Kinect that cannot be used for spying, yet you could eadily reenable it at any time if you need to. Just be sure to hide the dope/contraband and put on some underwear first before you reenable it. Or you could get a Wii-U instead. Oh, right, that "eye" on the gamepad is watching your every move...

[Austin]

I think ultra-paranoid people wouldn't even leave the thing connected at all.

[Robocop2]

I do have it mounted below the TV, but like you I do intend on getting the mount to place it at the top of my set. I will probably do that next week when payday hits, and I will give an updated impression when I have it mounted higher up.

 

I guess another issue with the device is that when it was "demonstrated" at E3 2013, it seemed extremely responsive, cutting-edge if you will. With my actual hands on, it seems like the exact opposite of what they demoed. What a shame.

I'm hoping its just a few bugs to work out that can be fixed with an update. Of course I suppose I should add that my area is kind of small (but well within what the minimum requirements)

[Andromeda Stardust]

 

 

I guess another issue with the device is that when it was "demonstrated" at E3 2013, it seemed extremely responsive, cutting-edge if you will. With my actual hands on, it seems like the exact opposite of what they demoed. What a shame.

I think the e3 event had optimal everything, bright lighting, optimal placement of all accessories, possibly a bland back drop in the background, and everyone was likely standing up. People's homes tend to be lit poorly, bad acoustics, have clutter in the house, poorly setup system, pets, strange colors / patterns in the surroundings, suboptimal placement of furniture / gamers, gamer's bodies masked by blankets or other objects, any of which could confuse the sensor/AI.

 

That's one thing I loved about the Wii sensor bar, it simply worked. The transmitter was at the TV and the sensor was in the controller. Twitch movements were detected easily whereas with the PS Move you are forced to make broad sweeping movements. I was the first to note that Kinect/Move were blatant ripoffs of the Wii motion tech which simply did not provide the same experience. Kinect/Move is the ass-backwards opposite of Wii motion control: sensor is located at the TV; transmitter is in the controller. Kintect II is even worse because Microsoft decided to forgo the controller entirely, and expect to use AI to detect individual gamers' movements under a variety of conditions. Sony was all the wiser by making the Move system completely optional. I invested in the remaining stock of PS3 160Gb Slim for cheap shortly after the Move bundle came out, and I have yet to bother with the PS Move tech.

Edited January 12, 2014 by stardust4ever

[HammR25]

I agree the voice commands are totally cool. They work great at going through them menus in the Forza games. They're also good for trolling on Xbox Live.

 

[moycon]

http://www.ign.com/articles/2014/01/28/reported-xbox-one-patch-expected-to-improve-graphical-performance

 

Microsoft is reportedly looking to improve the Xbox One's graphical performance in an upcoming patch. According to Hot Hardware, gaming insider Pete Doss has stated that Microsoft will relax GPU requirements for Kinect in order to achieve such results. As it is now, the Xbox One reserves 10 percent of its total GPU power for the Kinect, with 8 percent alone required for video processing. The alleged patch will purportedly free up that 8 percent for use in actual gameplay, leaving the remaining 2 percent for the peripheral's voice input processing.

 

This actually doesn't bother me a bit. I hope it's more than just a rumor.