Kinect Prefers a Tidy Room

[Logan Westbrook]

Kinect Prefers a Tidy Room

​

If you want to play Kinectimals or maybe Dance Central, you might have to do a little bit of clearing up first.

A video released by Microsoft has revealed three things to watch out for when setting and playing games on Kinect [http://www.amazon.com/Kinect-Sensor-Adventures-Xbox-360/dp/B002BSA298/ref=sr_1_1?s=gateway&ie=UTF8&qid=1285762523&sr=8-1]: Clutter, poor lighting and too much noise near the sensor should all be avoided in order to get the optimal playing experience.

Kinect's senior program manager Mark Plagge said that Kinect uses the "floor plane" as a point of reference, and any mess or clutter can present a problem to the sensor. Kinect also won't work quite right if the lighting in a room is uneven, as moving from a bright spot to a darker one can make you look slightly different to the device, making it harder for the cameras to follow you.

As well as removing visual noise, Microsoft warns about just plain old regular noise. Putting Kinect in a noisy environment, like too close to your TV's speakers, can interfere with its microphones and make it harder for it to respond to voice commands.

Honestly, all of this is pretty common sense stuff for a device that uses cameras and microphones. Some people will have more difficulty setting up Kinect than others - largely due to the size of the available space - but really, there's nothing here that's particularly outlandish.

Kinect will be available on November 4th in North America, November 10th in Europe and November 18th in Australia.

Source: Eurogamer [http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2010-09-29-ms-advises-against-clutter-for-kinect]



Permalink

 

[GeneticallyModifiedDucks]

Even more proof that Kinect will not be successful.

Nobody is going to tidy their room in order to play a game O_O'

 

[Verlander]

What about people who don't have perfectly square rooms? Not everyone lives in America, some of us have shitty little houses with weird floor space

 

[Samwise137]

I take pride in my filthy room! Good thing I won't be buying a kinect.

 

[DTWolfwood]

$150 + cleanup. GL Microsoft getting that message out to the impulse buyers. Especially when they write you angry letters saying it doesn't work. XD

 

[IckleMissMayhem]

Yes, and you'd also need to shell out for a motion controller, and I'm not doing that either!!

Less sarcastic, more on-topic: - Makes sense that a motion camera system would work better the less it has to "distract" it from the player's motions.

 

[Master10K]

More reason why the average videogame player should not buy the kinect.

 

[008Zulu_v1legacy]

Kinect's senior program manager Mark Plagge said that Kinect uses the "floor plane" as a point of reference, and any mess or clutter can present a problem to the sensor. Kinect also won't work quite right if the lighting in a room is uneven, as moving from a bright spot to a darker spot can make you look slightly different to the device, making it harder for the cameras to follow you.

Seriously? Do Microsoft think will all live in perfectly square rooms with absolutely no sofas, chairs or tables and halogen lights on all the walls?

 

[Celtic_Kerr]

So wait... lets say your XBOX is right next to your TV (I assume your sensors will be near the TV as you know, that's what you're facing whehn you play the game), and you happen to have surround sound (so a center channel and your two front channels will be causeing issues...) You just.... can't play well because you HAVE to put the sensors right about wherey our speakers would go? What if there's a couch behind me? Will the sensor fuck that up? What about my table?

And just to re-iterate my point about some cock at Microsoft saying that the Kinect will be the most sold concole ever: FUCK YOU MICROSOFT!

 

[teh_Canape]

really, microsoft keeps fucking itself over


and then they want players to buy kinect, HA.png

 

[Unrulyhandbag]

What about people who don't have perfectly square rooms? Not everyone lives in America, some of us have shitty little houses with weird floor space

this. Added to that their 'ideal expected room layout' had all the furniture on the opposite wall from the central TV in the UK an awful lot of homes have the TV in a corner and not everyone has all the furniture point at it.

It needs a lot of space, I don't know how big the average floor space of an American living room is but I can see that being an issue for a lot of people in several countries.

My living room is long and narrow with a stupid dogleg going right at the end for what used to be a dining room someone knocked through. My furniture points at the coffee table in the middle not the TV which is in the corner and I'm not rearranging that for a console. Move works okay in that space but it looks like I'm not getting kinetic any-more (kinect is a stupid name, my spell-checker auto-corrected it).

 

[Plinglebob]

My thought is that its supposed to sit infront of your TV, but a lot of people just use the TV speakers for soundwhich would then interfere with the microphone. Did Microsoft just assume everyone has large clean lounges with 5.1 speaker set ups when developing this?

 

[manaman]

Kinect's senior program manager Mark Plagge said that Kinect uses the "floor plane" as a point of reference, and any mess or clutter can present a problem to the sensor. Kinect also won't work quite right if the lighting in a room is uneven, as moving from a bright spot to a darker spot can make you look slightly different to the device, making it harder for the cameras to follow you.

Seriously? Do Microsoft think will all live in perfectly square rooms with absolutely no sofas, chairs or tables and halogen lights on all the walls?

So wait... lets say your XBOX is right next to your TV (I assume your sensors will be near the TV as you know, that's what you're facing whehn you play the game), and you happen to have surround sound (so a center channel and your two front channels will be causeing issues...) You just.... can't play well because you HAVE to put the sensors right about wherey our speakers would go? What if there's a couch behind me? Will the sensor fuck that up? What about my table?

And just to re-iterate my point about some cock at Microsoft saying that the Kinect will be the most sold concole ever: FUCK YOU MICROSOFT!

What about people who don't have perfectly square rooms? Not everyone lives in America, some of us have shitty little houses with weird floor space

I know guys, let's all exaggerate what they said to the point where it becomes obscene, then comment like that's exactly what was said. That's what all the cool kiddies are doing these days right?

It said large amounts of clutter can confuse the sensor, not a couch or chairs. It also said vastly differing levels of lighting. Which would be more like leaving the blinds on one window open during the day, so half the room is in daylight and other half is not.

OT: I don't really see Kinect being a success. I do hope they return with a better controller + motion control setup with the next console, as it has potential but right now the motion sensor only seems pretty much limited to cheap party and mini games only.

 

[Vanguard_Ex]

Even more proof that Kinect will not be successful.

Nobody is going to tidy their room in order to play a game O_O'

Damn straight, even Wii Fit isn't that dictatorial.
Plus, how are you supposed to play Kinect when you've got large amounts of friends round?

 

[Brotherofwill]

So they want sweaty man children to physically excercise AND have a tidy room? That's like asking a hippy to shave and go to work.

 

[Thomas Rembrandt]

Oh well, then kinect can suck my PC Gaming cock. 'Nough said.

 

[Jared]

Even more proof that Kinect will not be successful.

Nobody is going to tidy their room in order to play a game O_O'

Or just to sense you moving...it wants to make us all into people who move to play games when we want ounwind with them, and then we gotta go all anal with our rooms...

No Thanks! Organised mess ftw

 

[Celtic_Kerr]

I know guys, let's all exaggerate what they said to the point where it becomes obscene, then comment like that's exactly what was said. That's what all the cool kiddies are doing these days right?

It said large amounts of clutter can confuse the sensor, not a couch or chairs. It also said vastly differing levels of lighting. Which would be more like leaving the blinds on one window open during the day, so half the room is in daylight and other half is not.

You have not seen myapartment living room then. I have a large coffee table I'd be pushing to the side, and while I have a couch behind me, and two reclingin chairs to either side. if those are caught in the sensor, how will it distinguish "Large object on the floor space" and "Large pile of smaller things on the floorspace"

Again, in terms of noise, my TV's volume comes FROM the TV. If I set my center sensor on or below the TV, how will it affect gaming?

I'm not exagerating anything, it's the way my room is set up. But you know, thanks for not assuming

 

[hooksashands]

You can't help but feel sorry for all the people who worked on this. 2 weeks after release, they'll probably need to find different jobs.