Exciting Kinect Stuff Already Coming Out 200
Just last week we learned that the Kinect had been hacked wide open and already we're seeing a flood of innovative stuff coming out. Jamie found a page with a lot of pictures and screenshots, and Engadget has more.
And then theres also this telescreen thing (Score:5, Interesting)
The amusing and quite cleverly done telescreen kinect as an advertising tool jokes I read here on slashdot were quite fun to see!
But.....I was very bemused to see this today, reported elsewhere:
"Microsoft's Dennis Durkin voiced an interesting idea at an investment summit last week -- the idea that the company's Kinect camera might pass data to advertisers about the way you look, play and speak. "We can cater what content gets presented to you based on who you are," he told investors, suggesting that the Kinect offered business opportunities that weren't possible "in a controller-based world."
And over time that will help us be more targeted about what content choices we present, what advertising we present, how we get better feedback. And data about how many people are in a room when an advertisement is shown, how many people are in a room when a game is being played, how are those people engaged with the game? How are they engaged with a sporting event? Are they standing up? Are they excited? Are they wearing Seahawks jerseys?
http://www.engadget.com/2010/11/15/microsoft-exec-caught-in-privacy-snafu-says-kinect-might-tailor/ [engadget.com]
yay?
Targeted Ads (Score:5, Interesting)
For many who loath the idea of targeted ads I would assume many, if not most of those people are single. As a married old fart I can attest that A little intelligent ad targeting is nice. I for one get tired of feminine product advertisements because the wife uses my computer occasionally for shopping. Please, feel free to use the Kinect to determine if I am in fact: Male, Fat or Skinny, cheerful or pissed off. Because:
A: If I am male, I don't need tampon ads
B: If I am fat, don't advertise Big Macs, advertise weight loss because last I checked, fatties know where BK and McDs are. And no it's not your genetics, it's because you are irresponsible with your health. A predisposition just means you have to work harder. Thermodynamics proves this; your lack of responsibility, low self esteem, and discipline does not change the laws of physics.
C: If I am in a good mood try selling me a Beach Boy's collection. If I am pissed off Rammstien might be a better choice.
Re:thx for helping us, Love M$ (Score:2, Interesting)
I'm still waiting for proper virtual desktops, focus follows mouse, a single interface for installing and upgrading apps and not having to copy my entire profile from the network when I log on to name a few.
Also, credit for binary backwards compatibility is not often given because it is simply not a problem in the open world. I don't care if the office version I bought 10 years ago still works; I simply install the latest version with two clicks. Not that I ever have to since I already get the latest versions of everything I need automatically for well over 10 years. Besides, most of that binary backwards compatibility is thanks to Intel, not Microsoft. It's not like it's that hard to keep supporting 1000 year old APIs.
Decent and stable don't necessarily make it better than, say, Linux. They just make things more decent and stable, which was about time. The only thing that would really make things _better_, is choice. Simply because "better" means something else to most people. And choice is something Windows still does not offer in large amounts.
Nevertheless, even though it still sucks, Windows has come a long way since 1995 but I still only use it when there's financial compensation;-)
Re:Too Cool (Score:3, Interesting)
I wonder (Score:4, Interesting)
_ _
Re:No. (Score:4, Interesting)
One word: EyeToy.
No innovation. This is just MS taking existing technology and hyping it up beyond belief again, and the technology isn't even that impressive to begin with.
I own an EyeToy and I'm here to tell you you're vastly overestimating what it can do. Saying that it and the Kinect are the same thing is either intellectually dishonest or vastly uninformed. It is, at a minimum, an EyeToy that can do depth and body tracking. These alone are significant enough to put it in a new class of device.
It's laggy, imprecise and horrible for any real application, just like the EyeToy, the Wiimote, and Sony's wand-thing.
On the first point, control with your body actually will always be more difficult than control with your thumbs. So 'horrible for any real application' is a completely false standard. Imagine a lag free, completely precise Street Fighter clone. You'll be whining that you can't actually kick as fast and high as Chun Lee, and it would therefore be a 'horrible application'. Therefore all you really NEEDED to do was say 'I prefer buttons'. Because that's all there really seems to be in here once you strip away the crap.
As to the list, Kinect has depth, with the others don't have, and Wii/Move require handheld devices which require power and wireless setup.
But you're absolutely right, none of these have buttons as a primary mode of play, so in that manner they're 'all the same'...
Teaching Kinect to recognize objects on the PC (Score:2, Interesting)
This video shows an interesting demo of someone teaching the computer how to recognize toys with Kinect as one of the sensors. The demo used all open sourced technologies that combines computer vision, speech recognition, and speech synthesis.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fQ59dXOo63o [youtube.com]
Re:I wonder (Score:3, Interesting)
How long until they start making your TV non-functional if the camera doesm't detect you?
lol
Honestly I had that thought, and I'll even go so far as to doom us all by suggesting it here...
What if they ditched the remote control and replaced it with a Kinect-style gesture system? Then they would only be able to peer into your livingroom if and when you wanted to change the channel, adjust the volume, etc. They'd sell it as 'better' because you'll never be able to lose the remote. Further they can integrate identity by allowing you to restrict your childrens' gestures, and indirectly accusing you of letting them watch porn if you don't use that feature.
Deep inside my mind lurks an evil dictator. Sometimes I scare myself.