What makes kinect different

The base contains an electric motor and gear assembly that lets the Kinect adjust its angle of view vertically. This map is produced entirely within the sensor bar and then transmitted down the USB cable to the host in the same way as a typical camera image would be transferred—except that rather than color information for each pixel in an image, the sensor transmits distance values.

This would be difficult to do over a short distance. Instead, the sensor uses a clever technique consisting of an infrared projector and a camera that can see the tiny dots that the projector produces.

Figure shows the arrangement of the infrared projector and sensor. Figure The Kinect infrared projector and camera. The projector is the left-hand item in the Figure It looks somewhat like a camera, but in fact it is a tiny infrared projector. The infrared camera is on the right side of Figure In between the projector and the camera is an LED that displays the Kinect device status, and a camera that captures a standard 2D view of the scene.

Figure shows my sofa as a person okay, a camera might see it in a room. Figure My sofa. In contrast, Figure shows how the Kinect infrared sensor sees the same view. Figure The sofa as the Kinect infrared sensor sees it. The Kinect infrared sensor sees the sofa as a large number of tiny dots. The Kinect sensor constantly projects these dots over the area in its view. A camera in night vision mode is sensitive to the infrared light spectrum that the Kinect distance sensor uses.

Figure , for example, was taken in complete darkness, with the sofa lit only by the Kinect. The infrared sensor in the Kinect is fitted with a filter that keeps out ordinary light, which is how it can see just the infrared dots, even in a brightly lit room.

The dots are arranged in a pseudo-random pattern that is hardwired into the sensor. You can see some of the pattern in Figure Figure The dot pattern on the sofa arm. A pseudo-random sequence is one that appears to be random, but it is actually mechanically generated and easy to repeat. It can then compare the image from the camera with the pattern it knows it is displaying, and can use the difference between the two to calculate the distance of each point from the sensor.

To understand how the Kinect does this, you can perform a simple experiment involving a darkened room, a piece of paper, a flashlight, and a helpful friend.

Microsoft recently announced that the Kinect 2 will be available for developers July 15th and a general market release later this year. Zugara has been part of the Kinect 2 beta program since late and we can attest to the significant improvements available for the next generation Kinect 2 camera.

The biggest notable difference? The higher resolution capability of the Kinect 2 camera. The comparison image below represents the visual input difference between the Kinect 1 and Kinect From a pure technical spec standpoint, the Channel 9 community on MSDN has a product spec breakdown for Kinect 1 and Kinect 2 which you can view below.

See our ethics statement. He and his team are doing incubation work for the future of Xbox, figuring out what the next several years might look like, and looking at what various technology manufacturers have in the pipeline.

But also stereo 3D, headsets, and all these things. During this period, one technology begins getting a good amount of attention within Microsoft: depth-sensing cameras, cameras that can recognize the size of a room and the objects within. Speaking to 12 people that worked on and with the peripheral, from former Microsoft employees to third-party developers, we pieced together a story that begins as a small team on a skunkworks project and balloons into a companywide effort, requiring multiple divisions, angry children, the help of waiters and waitresses, and an insistence that people keep their clothes on.

They all met in the Israel Defense Forces, which Israeli men are required to serve in for at least three years after turning They all have science backgrounds; four of them previously worked in research and development for the military, and all of them have degrees in mathematics, engineering, or an equivalent field. But what if you could play a game without holding a controller? What if the human body itself were the controller? The group calls its company PrimeSense, a Tel Aviv-based startup focusing on depth-sensing technology and how it can be used to map a moving body.

Its breakthrough is a camera that can map humans and objects in 3D, as well as recognize gestures for hands-free control. In March , PrimeSense shows off its technology for the first time at the annual Game Developers Conference as it searches for a business partner.

It leaves that show with a host of new contacts — including Microsoft, which PrimeSense keeps in contact with, setting up a second appointment with the tech giant a few months later. Alex Kipman is in Los Angeles at the E3 conference. A few years later, the two parties will be intrinsically tied together, when Microsoft contracts PrimeSense to help it develop Kinect.

In , depth sensing is still a new, unproven, and — most importantly — expensive proposition for Microsoft. For the collaboration to work, a few things need to happen. If Microsoft is to invest in depth-sensing cameras, it needs to develop a piece of hardware that uses them in a way people will want to buy. That, too, comes with its own host of problems. And that, too, is expensive. Kipman has his work cut out for him.

But before all that, Nintendo will release a new console that will turn the game industry on its head. The Wii sold the dream of physically engaging with video games. It got people off the couch, standing and moving, turning an otherwise sedentary activity into something active.

Its accessibility — through the motion-controlled Wii Remotes that took the place of standard controllers — made it an easily adoptable console for families and elderly people.

Its library, full of sports games and family titles, appealed to a wider audience than the Mature-rated titles that littered the Xbox and the PlayStation 3. It was a hit in nursing homes. Nintendo had drawn a line in the sand. Microsoft, already considering its next steps, looks at its options for the future of Xbox. There is still research into the technology, though. Bertolami and his team still tinker with ideas and research cameras. Microsoft works with these ideas for a while, until two new employees help dig up some old ideas.

Kudo Tsunoda throws a football through the TV. The TV throws it back. He is, in essence, the controller. Tsunoda joins Microsoft in along with Darren Bennett as general manager and creative director, respectively. They join forces with Kipman. With Kipman at the head, the small team is able to show, not tell, what a device utilizing depth-sensing and skeletal tracking technologies can bring to gaming.

They come at a serendipitous time, too, as some in management at Xbox are starting to lean away from developing a Wii equivalent. Word comes from the top down that, despite initially walking away from it, Microsoft is going to invest in depth-sensing technology.

The project is greenlit around the holiday season of There were other interesting angles as well, but the person who really saw that and really got it at the very earliest phase would be Alex.

When he came up with that concept and started to build his team, and pitch it, then we put our heads together, because obviously there was a lot that we had learned in our exploration of depth-sensing cameras. And so that kind of all merged together. The Wii is no longer a blueprint for the company, but an inspiration, an impetus to do something bigger, better. Over the next few years, it will spin up to become a massive project for Microsoft. He has the Wii on his mind.

Compounding that issue is that every body and every room are different. How will the Kinect read both a tall father and his short daughter? What about a brightly lit living room versus a dimly lit basement? How about the size of a large living room in the Midwest — where property is comparatively cheap — versus the tiny, cramped living spaces of most New York City apartments?

One of the solutions Microsoft lands on ends up being a controversial — and very expensive — one. We sold 10 million Xbox Kinect units in the first [60] days, or something like that, so, you know, however many dollars it was, it was more than 10 million. That immersion is broken, Velazquez argues, if players are constantly having to adjust the device so that the camera can detect them.

It should be easy to start. It should work for everyone.