...“Further, because some entertainment experiences engage the user’s situational awareness (e.g., in experiences like the video game scenario described above), the ability to perceive motion and identify objects in the peripheral environment (i.e., in a region outside of the high resolution display) may intensify the entertainment experience.”
The patent also includes the image below.
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Mind blowing stuff! Truly. If that were all there was to this story, I might be suspicious. I might also be excited at the prospect of such a brilliantly nuanced variant on the concept of virtual reality. But, still, any thread I might be tempted to write about that would be in the "Off Topic" ( BTS ) section of the forum. So why is this on the ATS side? Because when one combines all of the above, with what I am about to talk about - it starts to seem really, really suspicious and scary.
In America, We Don't Watch TV... TV Watches US!!!
Microsoft's Xbox 720 will unveil a new version of Kinect, a Blu-ray drive, and an A/V port for watching and recording broadcast TV, at least according to details leaked by Xbox World.
Other features will include directional audio, an input and output for watching and recording TV shows, and an "innovative controller," noted gaming news site ComputerAndVideoGames.com (CVG). Last February, Xbox World said that the redesigned controller would come with a built-in HD touch screen.
Codenamed Durango, the new Xbox would be powered by a CPU with "four hardware cores, each divided into four logical cores" and 8GB of RAM.
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Sixteen cores! Geeks, get your geek on! Amazing! But that's not where our focus needs to be. We need to pay attention to the part about "a new version of Kinect". That's the important part of this.
For those who are not familiar Kinext is a camera based, motion sensing game controller - something like a webcam - that can track a persons movements and interpret them as commands for whatever game a person might be playing. Currently it's a fairly basic and innocent enough technology. Many are familiar with the dynamic now thanks to the popularity of the Nintendo Wii console. Basically speaking, you move, and the game sees it, translates it, and makes your game character, on the screen, move as well.
Just for reference, about Kinect, Wikipedia tells us:
Kinect is a motion sensing input device by Microsoft for the Xbox 360 video game console and Windows PCs. Based around a webcam-style add-on peripheral for the Xbox 360 console, it enables users to control and interact with the Xbox 360 without the need to touch a game controller, through a natural user interface using gestures and spoken commands. The project is aimed at broadening the Xbox 360's audience beyond its typical gamer base. Kinect competes with the Wii Remote Plus and PlayStation Move with PlayStation Eye motion controllers for the Wii and PlayStation 3 home consoles, respectively. A version for Windows was released on February 1, 2012
After selling a total of 8 million units in its first 60 days, the Kinect holds the Guinness World Record of being the "fastest selling consumer electronics device". 18 million units of the Kinect sensor had been shipped as of January 2012.
The Kinect
The upgraded version of Kinect is what troubles me.
But a company document leaked in June touted a higher level of accuracy, stereo imaging, better voice recognition, and the ability to track four players at once.
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Kinect 2 so accurate it can lip read
Microsoft plans to release a next-generation Kinect device so accurate it can lip read, sources have told Eurogamer.
Kinect 2 will come bundled with future Xbox consoles, we understand.
The intention is that Kinect 2 will offer improved motion sensing and voice recognition.
One development source told Eurogamer that Kinect 2 will be so powerful it will enable games to lip read, detect when players are angry, and determine in which direction they are facing.
Kinect 2 can track the pitch and volume of player voices and facial characteristics to measure different emotional states.
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