On February 1, the Xbox Kinect Camera celebrated the 15th anniversary: Perhaps the most controversial gaming product in Microsoft's history. The curiosity in history has been famous as an ancient time, but this does not mean that the device lasts for a long time without leaving traces in the gaming industry. The Guardian publication speak About how Kinect found a second life after the sales end.
In 2010, Kinect, sold with Xbox 360, looked like the game industry in the future – although not long. The camera has discovered players' movements and copied them on the screen theoretically allowing the control of games with the help of the body. In fact, this device is a huge feeling: Microsoft has sold 1 million copies of the camera just 10 days after release. Kinect still retains the title of the fastest gaming on history.
However, the deficiencies of games, the unreliable camera and the monopoly of Nintendo in the movement control market have led to the fact that the enthusiasm around Kinect has quickly cooled. In 2013, Microsoft released the updated version of the camera for Xbox One, but the idea turned into a shameful laugh. And four years later, the company officially closed Kinect production.
But this does not mean that the camera has been forgotten and buried: In certain circles, it is still popular and is still a desired device. Indeed, unlike the original Microsoft plans, Kinect has found a second life not in games, but in interactive settings, network control and ghost hunting.
For reference, Kinect works on the basis of structural backlight system. The camera produces depth data using the projection of the cloud of infrared points: deformed in this matrix for shaped objects. And on the basis of these data, the core of learning the machine then learned to see see see the human. In games like Kinect Sports, this allows the camera to transform the body into a controller.
The artists participating in Kinect The interactive artistic value for the fact that the device eliminates the needs of programming and other habits, the characteristic of the infrared chamber is less advanced. The engineers involved in creating robots are also very grateful to Microsoft for a cheap, affordable sensor that brings their car with vision and movement. Previously, they had to rely on flat information from two -dimensional lids – Kinect, compared to them, providing a detailed and more accurate map of depth. For example, a normal camera does not see the difference between a bundle of grass and a stone on the ground before.
Such depth chambers are currently spreading in some autonomous robots. Therefore, they are used by Pursevrance Purseveration and identifying technology of Apple.
Although Kinect's achievements died in the context of the ability of new open source sensors and advanced motion sensors, Microsoft cameras have lived a stormy life after stopping production. She watched the demilitarized area of Korea, helped in the terrain and arranged patients in computerized tomography, and even played the role of security room at the airport.
In addition, there is a field where Kinect's unreliable is not so important. Ghost hunters and those who prefer the mysterious phenomena using the camera as a sensor that can distinguish between invisible characters. The fact is that the device sometimes sees the body, which is not in fact not – experts in the secret believe that this is a sign of the existence of elegant souls.