At the E3 2010 trade show, Microsoft announced the new gaming system - Microsoft Kinect. Last year, Microsoft announced project Natal, which has officially been renamed the Kinect – maybe as a cross-marketing effort with the Kin phone. Much like the Wii gaming system, the Xbox Kinect encourages real movement - but as opposed to the Wii, the Kinect will focus on full-body movement. As an add-on package to the Xbox 360 gaming system, the Kinect can be sold in November or October of this year.

Article Source: Microsoft Xbox Kinect - Motion-controlled gaming goes hands free

The way the Microsoft Kinect operates

The Microsoft Kinect system uses a two-camera system to capture motion. One RGB camera will recognize your face and joints, while one more will be programmed specifically to recognize depth. This system will let the Kinect track and re-create full-body movements.This means there could be no controllers and no separation between game and player.

The games available for Kinect

The Xbox Kinect system is going to be bundled with games and could have separate games accessible. These games will contain a Star Wars game from LucasArts. There are also six “base” games the Kinect can be released with. Many gamers are already drooling over the possibility of Halo Reach migrating to Kinect.

Is Kinect the first?

Since the success of the Nintendo Wii, numerous game console makers have been developing a lot more interactive game systems. The Microsoft Kinect is not the only system like this, though. Sony’s “Move” could be a comparable system, but will cost half as much. The Nintendo Wii did something that other game console makers had assumed would not be possible – sell games to a very wide audience. When the Xbox was at first released by Microsoft, the company lost over $ 1 billion – the system was a commercial success, but they did not sell enough units to hard-core gamers.

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