What Is Kinect?

If you've ever been to a get-together and tried to play Xbox, you may have found yourself surrounded by a bunch of people attempting to seize the controller simultaneously. It's a problem that Microsoft has tried to solve with Kinect. Kinect is an accessory for Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Xbox One video game consoles. It allows users to control games, films, and music using body movements or verbal commands, eliminating the need for traditional controllers. Kinect can be used with other devices such as PlaySation Move, Wii Sports and Wii U GamePad. It's time to connect with Kinect. Kinect is a controller that uses video and audio data collected by its camera and microphone as input to your Xbox. In real-time, it can then distinguish your gestures, voice commands, facial characteristics, skeletal data and full-body motions! Gaming applications like "Guitar Hero" can recognize individual players with the help of skeletal data and identify each player by name and other features. Microsoft's Kinect is not just for games anymore. The device can help people with various health issues, education, and even home automation. For example, Microsoft has worked with the University of Washington to develop a program that helps patients with Parkinson's disease do chores like cooking and cleaning. The program uses Kinect technology to recognize when a patient has trouble using one of their hands and then gives them instructions on completing their task without using that hand. The program also uses voice recognition software to understand what the patient is saying so it can give them step-by-step instructions for completing the task successfully. The same technology is being used in schools as well. For example, teachers at Montclair State University are using Kinect technology to teach students how to write reports by having them write directly onto an image of a keyboard projected onto their computer screen using motion tracking technology built into the device itself (which detects movement from your body). "Kinect" is a combination of "kinetics" and "connect." If you want to connect more with your gaming system, look no further than Kinect!