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Kinect Is Really Dead Now, Basically (gamespot.com)
Microsoft has confirmed that it is no longer producing the Kinect adapter that is needed to connect the Kinect to an Xbox One S, Xbox One X, or other Windows device. This comes after Microsoft announced in October 2017 that it was killing off the Xbox One's Kinect camera. GameSpot reports: "After careful consideration, we decided to stop manufacturing the Xbox Kinect Adapter to focus attention on launching new, higher fan-requested gaming accessories across Xbox One and Windows 10," a Microsoft spokesperson said in a statement to Polygon. The representative declined to say if Microsoft would ever bring Kinect back. However, the company confirmed that the adapter "will no longer be available" to purchase.
A bit of a shame really. While it was a useless gaming product, it was actually an interesting and useful device for creating body tracking or depth mapping software as these capabilities were wrapped in a pretty straightforward API.
...Kinect Party is one of the most accessible games ever made for young kids, even my 2 year old could join in enthusiastically - "Daddy - Birds on the Sofa!", "Watch out Daddy Lava on the floor!!!"...ah well...
Yet another potential technology amputated and put down by Microsoft.
Here's to hoping someone else will pick up on the technology to allow further exploration in home automation etc. by the hacker community.
And it never saw a PC or an XBox. Too bad, very good product.
What about tools like skype. Does the Xbox have other video accessories?
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
... while it was a great method for user input and getting players to move around rather than remain sitting, advertisers were starting to use to the device to collect marketing data about users:
"Xbox One can essentially work like TV that watches you, bringing marketers a huge new trove of data,"
https://kotaku.com/xbox-ones-t...
Vintage computer adverts: http://www.vintageadbrowser.com/computers-and-software-ads
I haven't seen such denial in a company killing something off since Apple's G4 Cube:
It's been 6,028 days. It's dead.
Microsoft no longer manufacture the Kinect hardware, their current Xbox One S and Xbox One X consoles don't support the Kinect without an adapter, and they just stopped selling that adapter. It's dead.
> creating body tracking
Body tracking for a hologram is pretty weird though...
(Reportedly a major Kinect market is Japan where the otaku use it with a Win PC freeware called MMD, to create 3D models and dance videos of the eternally 16 year old virtual j-pop starlet called Hatsune Miku. She is a piece of music synthesis software who has no tangible body and performs as an advanced projection in "live" concerts but the fans want their own doujin.)
Being able to see myself snap a G-string while fingering a minor was helpful
Huh? There's a joke in there somewhere, I just know it....
What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas.
Kinect is the only reason I own an Xbox 360, and the lack of backward compatibility for Kinect titles is the reason I haven't upgraded to a One. Sure, it's getting less use now, but when the kids were smaller, the Kinect got a lot of action. For controller based games I have an HTPC.
It's unfortunate that Microsoft never understood what could be done with it, and what shouldn't be done with it (UI navigation).
of communicating with my computer thru insults... and the computer actually listening
If there is, I'm sure the Kinect must have captured it!
A major problem IMO was that the Kinect is terrible at UI navigation, and Microsoft forced that, instead of allowing (and even forcing) controller use for UI segments. Kinect Party and Avengers: Battle for Earth are great partly because they allow navigating menus with the controllers, instead of struggling with the Kinect for that. Disneyland Adventures is terrible because most of the game is spent using the Kinect for avatar creation and navigation, so the actual fun minigames (and they are fun) become a small part of a generally frustrating experience.
But yes, the hate from hardcores is just because they're small minded.
Not having used a Kinect before, I wanted to see just how special this adapter was. Apparently Kinect uses a special plug that combines USB and 12V power. Microsoft's adapter for the Xbone version presents this as a USB 3.0 B jack.
There seem to be a lot of third-party adapters out there for the 360 version. They have a wall wart, an orange-tongue "USB" jack for the Kinect, and a USB A plug. It is also possible to hack off the end of the connector, which seems to only use USB 2.0, and splice in a 12V 1.5A power supply and USB connector.
So basically this is just another special proprietary variation of a standard plug, simply because they didn't want to have a second plug in the Kinect for power. Not that it's anything new, Microsoft has been pulling this bullshit ever since the original Xbox used plain USB with a two special connectors for its controllers. (To be fair, it probably had better durability for insertions/removals.)
At least with USB 3 for the Xbone version, why couldn't they have used the official extended power management support? Then at least it could use some kind of standard power inserter or powered hub. Or was that from USB C?
As long as China can find a supply of connectors for the Xbone version, I'm sure you will see replacements out there soon.
#naabhaprzrag, #sverubfr-000, #agi-fcbafberq, negvpyr[pynff*=' negvpyr-ary-'] { qvfcynl: abar !vzcbegnag; }
Me thinks thou dost protest too much. You seem well versed in something you supposedly hate. You must...umm, research this a lot.
Really dead, or basically dead?
Are slashdot headlines written by tweens now?
Actually, it's literally dead.
Embracing, tainting, extinguishing.
Once the wow factor wears off: VR and AR, amd for similar reasons - for most things they fundamentally just aren't practical. The 2010s are going to be remembered as the hype years, not a lot of forward progress has been made this decade.
As happened with 3D TVs, I waited for them to get the tech right, then put off a purchase because we were upgrading from an apartment to a house so we wanted to get a larger 3D set. By the time the house was ready 3D TVs were killed off and the ones with the specs I wanted were no longer available as "new old stock."
Now that I am going to be ready to upgrade from my Xbox 360 to an Xbox One along with other AV upgrades (mostly to get 4K capability) they're killing off the Kinect.
The universe hates me. :D
Obviously the solution is to buy now before stock runs out, but...
The Christian Right is Neither (Christian nor right). See: Matthew 23, Matthew 25, Ezekiel 16:48-50
What are those exactly? What are fans requesting? If Kinect was hated because it required bodily movement are the new devices going to be controlled by the undulation of fat folds and farting?
Sig. Sig. Sputnik
Along with the NSA.
Really dead, or basically dead?
Are slashdot headlines written by tweens now?
Mostly dead--which is slightly alive!
Looks like Xbox placed 3rd in a 3 way race this holiday season, even with new hardware. 2018 is looking bleak on the games front for the platform as well, with only Crackdown 3 announced as a major title being released (and even that will be on PC). XB1X sales were largely upgrades for existing customers according to sales analysis as well...with no corresponding uptick in software sales to go along with all of the hardware sales. With no Windows Phone or Surface to hide behind this earnings call, the bleeding won't remain hidden much longer.
...the Nintendo Power Glove. Truly a sad loss for us all.
We'll make great pets
As someone else mentioned elsewhere in this thread, is that Microsoft was unwilling to ensure the privacy of the individuals using this peripheral with their xbox hardware, which is what killed it.
As others have said, as a device used on the PC (which also had open source drivers reverse engineered for it!) it was quite useful for all sorts of gesture tracking, 3d depth modelling, etc. However similiar to the Google Glass a few years ago, its privacy implications outweighed that for most people, somewhat ironically given that those same people are out buying smart tvs, and 'home assistant' products that do basically the same thing, with or without a camera, but open to always spying on and marketing to you in the home. And people are actually paying *MORE* for those than the comparative cost of the Kinect bundled with the Xbox One back when those were purchased at release.
It is sad to watch how the bad PR does one product in while the same people will give good PR to a repackaged version of the same idea and give it a pass just a few years later.
Microsoft has been so creepy in the last decade, it's going to take a long time before people see them as trustworthy again. Always on functionality at the Xbox One launch probably killed Kinect. It was such a disconnect with the creep-factor of the technology. Most people don't have degrees in computer science like all the people at MS. They are further behind technology adoption. It takes time to be comfortable with this sort of seeing-eye technology. And, Microsoft thought they could just cram always on down their customers throat. Well, thank God the market shut that down. Kinect deserves to die for even trying always on, especially before average people were even a little comfortable.
There's a component which I believe is missing from this story: Apple purchased PrimeSense back in 2013, which is the company which used to license the Kinect sensor array technology to Microsoft. Apple is now using the same patented tech in their FaceID system on the iPhone X.
Those are the facts; now on to the speculation: I would expect the licenses which previously covered the Kinect have since expired, and the two companies have been unable to negotiate mutually beneficial license terms, going forward. (Or to put it more bluntly: Apple probably just told Microsoft to kindly shove it.) Further, Microsoft no doubt knew this was coming well before now, so Microsoft has probably spent the past several years investigating whether or not it could forge a way ahead for the Kinect which does not rely upon the PrimeSense patents... and this new information seems to imply that they never found one.
Glad it's gone. It was rubbish.
Microsoft hardware is usually pretty good but the Kinect was commandeered and taken over by marketing.
If it used a normal USB connection that would have helped. Instead it used some weird specialized USB3 that didn't work on many USB controllers. Then combined with the weird proprietary protocols it used... Plus the stupid large size of it. Duh.
Why not make it open and usable? Microsoft hardware is usually awesome in this regard. It is usually compatible, open, and powerful (the hardware group has traditionally been so much different and better than the software groups). Why not use open protocols and MODERN technology that could have shrunk it it 1/10th the size? It would have dominated the marketplace outside of gaming nonsense.
Oh well, Intel eats their lunch.
Saw one of these in Melbourne casino on every table, they also had a normal camera but perhaps depth or infrared? Was beneficial to them?
It was the newer, large model for the Xbox One.
Win some, lose some.
It was "A-Minor", by the way. xO231O on a 6-string with standard tuning.
In a world of the blind, the one-eyed man is king--and the two-eyed man is a heretic.