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Microsoft Kinect 2.0 Specifications Leak, Includes Support For USB 3.0
An anonymous reader writes "Whether or not you're an owner of Microsoft's Xbox 360, chances are you find the Kinect accessory intriguing, since you don't even need the company's console to use it. That's why there's so much excitement surrounding the console's successor, codenamed Durango: it will feature Kinect 2.0, the specifications for which allegedly leaked today. The new device will reportedly be able to track players with a height of one meter, feature a mode for both seated and standing players, detect hand states (such as open or closed), as well as extra and rotated joints. As for improved features, it will be able to supposedly track six rather than two active players, occluded joints, and sideways poses. This will all be possible thanks to an increased field of vision, 1920×1080 color stream, 512×424 depth stream, an added infrared stream, USB 3.0, and 60ms latency."
I heard a rumour the other day that the upcoming XBox may come pre-packaged with a Kinect and I couldn't help but wonder why anyone would think that would be a good idea.
Have there been any "gotta have it" applications for the Kinect?
If the new Kinect is as friendly with PC's as the last one, that'll be a step up. Otherwise it just becomes another console accessory.
Twitter supports and protects racists - by smearing their critics with the "Hate Speech" label.
I remember see articles about how the Kinect 2 would be able to see every joint of every finger. You could type in mid-air and it ould understand it and it could even read sign language. Now they are saying it can see if your hand is open or closed.
What a disappointment.
... can Kinect 2.0 run Linux?
Preferably as a Beowulf Cluster.
An enigma, wrapped in a riddle, shrouded in bacon and cheese
Depending on your actual need, you might want to check out the Leap motion controller. It CAN track finger position, although not from the same distance, nor in the same way as the Kinect. But more granularity. https://www.leapmotion.com/
My brain is overly lubricated
It can "detect...extra...joints"? Talk about features for a tiny niche market! How many people have six fingers? Or two elbows per arm?
"... it will be able to supposedly track six rather than two active players ..."
The original Kinect has no hardware limit on how many people it can track. Any limit is imposed by the game software. Kinect Party, for example, works with up to six players.
Hmmm.... seems like that technology could have applications for creating a virtual piano keyboard (or typewriter keyboard, for that matter).
File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
This is pretty epic! I can't wait to get my hands on it. I just hope Microsoft adds Kinect support to the WinRT SDK so Modern (Metro) Apps can use it and hardware manufacturers can build it into tablets and PCs.
Kinnect is a sensor, you mean Xbox 720 perhaps...
the D is silent
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
As it so happens that's already implemented.
This all is possible thanks to 512×424 depth resolution period.
Drop in latency is only due to new Xbox having more cores and bigger processing power.
Doesnt look as hot as I had hoped. I was expecting 720p depth.
Who logs in to gdm? Not I, said the duck.
Kinect 2 is an always on feature of the new Xbox console. Images capture by the hi-resolution or infrared camera can be encrypted and stored as hidden files on the massive hard-drive in real-time for later transmission over the Internet. The cameras and microphones can also be remotely activated if the console is powered up, even if the console is not connected to the Internet (the activating device in this case needs to be in the vicinity of the console, so it can use a wireless link).
The truth is that the NSA, and other intelligence agencies, don't even fully know yet what use they'll put all the mined visual data to. They just know that spying in the living rooms of so many citizens is a dream come true.
Yes, every nerd will swear they'll put a cover over the Kinect camera bar whenever not strictly in use, but in reality few will bother at all, and even from this group most will soon stop.
Anyone using Windows on a desktop system knows it has been long impossible to block Microsoft's low level constant outward Internet data streams (without impacting the general use of the Internet). To use the new Xbox means being forced to trust all of Microsoft's Internet data streams. Only the people willing to permanently forego the use of the Kinect 2 (and these will be VERY tiny in number) can be sure to prevent spying, by permanently sealing the sensors somehow. However, Microsoft has given itself the ability to see most simply sensor blocking as a 'malfunction', and demand that the sensors be allowed to receive reasonable input for ANY application on the console to function.
Given that Microsoft's consoles frequently find themselves in the bedrooms of underage children, you might think (if you were very stupid indeed) that the government would mandate HARDWARE off switches for devices like Kinect, so people could be certain when the computer had no ability to record video. However, with devices the government can use to spy on us, the opposite is true. Manufactures are forced to use 'soft' switches that can be over-ridden remotely. Remember folks, it ain't 'child porn' when your government is the one operating the secret camera. We already had this proven in court, when that school district was using laptops to spy on their pupils in their bedrooms. The court judgement stated that the state is absolutely allowed to secretly spy on children.
The safest societies are those where the people at the top respect the people at the bottom- and these societies are formed when the people at the bottom actually work (eg., form a union) to gain respect.
The most dangerous societies are those where the people at the top despise and disrespect the people at the bottom. These societies are formed when naturally corrupt and evil leaders discover that there is NEVER any resistance by the people at the bottom to the abuses heaped upon them. By saying "please Microsoft and the NSA, place permanent government accessible cameras in our homes", people mark themselves worse than slaves or Russian serfs from the 18th century.
Slavery and serfdom didn't just exist in the past, it was the common abusive form in which hundreds of millions of people lived their daily lives. No-one here seems smart enough to ask what psychological conditions cause such abuse to arise. Smart people know that if enough people think and act like slaves, then across time they will create the leaders that will turn them into ACTUAL slaves.
'1984' envisaged porno and lotteries for the plebs, and always-on TVs that had cameras watching the viewers in the homes of the middle-classes. Today, in our 'classless' society, we know the porno and lotteries (and video-games) are the 'sugar' used to get people to willingly install Big-Brother's cameras and microphones in their homes.
Oh come on now.
It's deployed PR, call it for what it is.
I'm more intrigued by the phrase "as well as extra and rotated joints" from TFS. Extra joints?
"Think about how stupid the average person is. Now, realise that half of them are dumber than that." - George Carlin
Leap Motion is cool. SoftKinetic is cooler. Kinect 1 uses structured light, or a grid of IR beams to calculate depth with parallax- SoftKinect actually uses photon time of flight (!!). Blows kinect out of the water for fidelity. Joint, fingers no problem in near mode. I have developed apps with both, and I can't for the life of me figure out why nobody has every heard of SoftKinetic. Not MS backed I guess.
That's great for them, but what about the rest of us who are taller than 3.28 feet?
First, we promise and then fail to keep our promises.