ICT Article 1 - Deep Inside Xbox 360 Kinect and Why It's the Future of Microsoft

 Cheesy Background music from the “Inception” Soundtrack aside, the short video before the article is quite informative with Dr. Ilan Spillinger (Microsoft, Vice President of Interactive Entertainment, Business & Hardware) giving a brief history of User Interfaces from DOS to present day where we have as they are calling a “Natural User Interfaces” i.e. The Kinect which incorporates audio, visual and gesture. In between examples of how the Kinect can be used Raghu Murthi (General Manager, NUI Hardware) talks of the mechanics of the Kinect with its automated camera lens for visual capture and innovative audio (Multichannel Echo Cancellation) for voice capture. Spillinger finishes the video telling us that in the near future they will be forced to update either the Kinect or the 360 itself to allow for the advancement of the system.

The article itself speaks along the same lines of the video but goes into greater detail talking about more elements of the Kinect and how it came to be as well as being riddled with images to illustrate what they’re talking about. Microsoft first hired Spillinger so it could be “deeply engaged on the next generation Xbox”. When Microsoft began looking at building a NUI (Natural User Interface) they found most of the pieces or components were already available to them e.g. the PrimeSense 3D Sensor. We are then told that the Kinect brings together tracking your body with full depth mapping, voice command response and a video camera to form an infantile NUI.

The Kinect’s Optical system allows it to “see” through 3 eye-like holes in its “head”. Microsoft have taken million dollar 3D tech and made it in volume and cheap. The Optical System projects a laser and detects what’s happening based on what’s reflected, the projector and sensor create a depth map then with the camera at precise alignment it blends together RGB with depth map to create a virtual greenscreen

A demonstration of how the Voice Command doesn’t always work then shows us how complex the Kinect’s audio set up is. Its size & shape are made by the precise placement of 4 microphones along the bottom places found by research in 200 homes globally. These mics create an audio profile of whatever room the Kinect is in. The Kinect’s Voice Command system is a lot more complex the “push to talk” as it doesn’t have cues. It fixes this with Beam Forming, allowing it to focus on specific spots; the Audio Processor also uses MEC to cut out other noises. The Voice Command has a built in Accent Recognition so it can understand commands from any voice.

The Kinects are tested for various common ‘wear &tear’ issues such as smooth cameras and  withstanding excess heat, the latter being stopped by a built in fan which will stop memories of the “red ring of death” coming back to haunt Xbox users who will be reassured that “it is a new device, there’s nothing from the past”. Vents have also been purposely put in for the same reason.

The Kinect’s shape was chosen because of the mics but also because it is glossy and looks ‘premium’. It is also not personable (unlike the EVAesque prototype) making it blend in with the room’s other tech.

The software is what makes Kinect what it is; the hardware alone is just parts. Kinect sees people as thousands of pixels. Using a database of 20 million images Kinect coverts the raw data to a skeleton which makes your body available to the game. The Kinect can theoretically see as many people as you want however it is designed for 2. The Kinect can recognise people using facial recognition on the RGB camera but it can also recognise by the pixel skeletons general shape (quicker).

At this point another video has been squeezed into the article with a discussion between the Gizmodo journalists, Spillinger & Murthi about why this is the right time for the Kinect to come out, what makes the Kinect so revolutionary, what can be done to make the Kinect evolve over the next few years and how they may come about and is there an Xbox 3 on the horizon (thanks to the Kinect, no). Spillinger ends the video assuring us that if there is a need for change with the Kinect or the 360 itself in the future they will hope to have it out at the right time.

Further assurance is given when Raghu and Spillinger assure us that Kinect if it does not initially do well will not be left to rot as they think the 3 pillars of Xbox are: content, LIVE and Kinect. Raghu talks of how Kinect will evolve as it spreads across other parts of the Xbox platform. The Article ends on a hopeful note as at the time of publishing Xbox had not reached the shelves but what has been seen on Gizmodo’s tour makes them feel as if the Kinect can do nothing other than very well and may even influence other Microsoft projects in the near future.

Here a link to check out the original article and see the videos aforementioned in my summary:

gizmodo.com/5604308/deep-inside-xbox-360-kinect-the-interface-of-microsofts=dreams

Beany Out!!!!