Microsoft Xbox 360 Kinect Official Thread - Page 33

So, I though the Harry Potter game for Kinect was supposed to be out at the end of November.

you may not want to bother. If you read the reviews of the game, and the fine print on the ads, you'll see that it is not a real Kinect game.
It has added-on content that works with Kinect, but the core game is not for Kinect.

It is out now. The amazon reviews havent been good. Aparently only some portions are motion controlled. Like mini-games/missions.

I feel like that is where kinect can really add some dimension to some hardcore games. to list a few ideas

Call of duty-difussing a bomb where have to cut wires
battlefield- as medic defribing teamamte back to life or operating
Halo- mini game controlling warthog or banshee etc
Mass effect- taking the helm of normandy as joker. or just flipping thru all the huds on command deck.

the possibilities are endless! i just hope the developers put some real effort into supporting it.

there have been a number of demos now where the hacker/developer says that the raw data from the kinect camera does provide for finger detection. that it's just microsoft's skeletal software that doesn't resolve fingers.

here's one of them.



so conceivably, if the game developer makes their own skeletal software, they could do fingers. Harmonix, Ubisoft, and Blitz Games (Biggest Loser) are on record saying they used their own skeletal software. Blitz said they needed to do it to have more reliable routines for the floor exercises (like being able to do crunches).

or MS could implement it themselves down the line.

VERY clean setup. NICE gypsy.


I'll admit, I didn't read far enough into the manual where it referenced this, however, I have mine about 2" in front of my center channel and haven't noticed any issues.

Just set up the Kinect tonight (finally) for the kids and definitely loving it. I did have a question though. It is normal for the kinect to make noise when it is moving up and down to scan you correct? It isn't a grinding sound but you definitely can hear the gears inside moving as it adjusts to the correct view (almost like a buzzing sound as it moves up and down). It's working great but the paranoid side of me wanted to make sure this is normal.

Thanks in advance!

If your ear is by it yes but from a normal distance no. Unless you higher than normal hearing . I my room where I am deployed when I Video Kinect I sit about 4ft from my bed and I don't hear it but I may just not notice it too.

No I can definitely hear it from my couch which is about 7 feet away. I must say though that I set it up in a completely silent room before the kids got home. That might be why I noticed it. I read somewhere in this thread mentioning the same noise so I just assumed it was normal. I know you can't hear it with the sound turned up. I only heard it when you initially boot up the xbox ( when the camera is adjusting) and if I manually go in and adjust the sensor up and down. Have you tried doing that?

Where have you been able to find the kinect? Only seems to be available if you buy an xbox system with it.

I saw some solo at the local Gamestop yesterday.

Here in NYC there is nothing and there has been nothing available for a while.

NEVER manually adjust the sensor due to the sensitive motor for Kinect. It can break from you manually moving it yourself. If you are hearing it from the couch from that far away you have a defect or from you manually moving it. I suggest simply taking it back and doing a swap out.

My experience is that, if the room is quiet, you can indeed hear the motor in the Kinect faintly when standing at the distance where one might use. You're most likely to experience this in the dashboard, since if the DVD drive is spinning to play a game, that tends to drone out the noise. This doesn't represent defective operation.

I own 2 Kinects. The beta one at home and the one I have with me on deployment. I can hear it when I am standing by it. I don't hear it from my bed. I own the Slims and no longer have the fats so disc drive is always quiet.

No, the data is too low res to resolve fingers, unless you put your hand up to the sensor. The play distance for games is 6'-8', the 320x240 depth image cannot see fingers reliably. I doubt you will ever see anything beside games using gross arm and leg motions.

I believe he was talking about going into the Kinect calibration where you can move the sensor up and down with a controller.....

there are no statements regarding what you are claiming. the only thing MS ever said was that sign language was not going to be in the Kinect. all you've listed was a supposition based on unknown sources. everything started with kotaku's piece and then every blog ran with it. if the resident troll can show me otherwise, I would genuinely be interested. i've seen a few tech demos that suggest otherwise.

Yup that's what I meant. When I adjust it in the calibration or when the sensor moves (when you first power on your console), I can hear it where I am sitting. It's not super loud but definitely noticeable enough to take notice. I went ahead an picked up another 4GB bundle (last one at BB by me) and will try it out tonight. Would I have an issue if I just swapped the kinect from another bundle with mine? I was worried warranty wise that I might have a problem because I believe the kinect's serial number is on the box that you purchase. I know BB only scans the box for the system serial number but I wanted to make sure. I asked a BB employee about this and she stated they would definitely just swap out a kinect from another bundle if I wanted to keep my current system. I guess I will see tonight.

The only manual moving I did on the sensor was moving it a degree on the left side. If you stand above my sensor and look straight down, it wasn't alligned (it was crooked). So I moved it a bit. Again I was not moving it up or down plus the kinect does not move left or right to begin with. I highly doubt that caused in issues.

If this was the case, how can Kinect understand when you are applying backspin vs. top spin in Kinect Sports ping pong? The arm motion is virtually identical.

I was playing with kinetic today at Best buy. It was using the dodge ball type game. I noticed that it recognized my fingers and hands very well. When I cupped my hands like swimming it showed it. When I spread my fingers outs like "jazz hands- LOL" it showed that. Seeing how accurate that was made my mind up to grab one and try it.

They only had the bundle with 4Gb slim. I am disappointed that it doesn't come with USB power supply since I want to be able to use it before xmas with my old xbox.

Anyone out there not using their USB power supply?

Dumb question but are these hard to find his year? I just got a text about Walmart just getting 75 of them in and they aren't on the shelf yet.

I'd look it up but I'm in the car. If they're hard to find I might swing by and get a couple to turn around on eBay for a profit.

Edit: got home and checked eBay. Doesn't look like it's worth it as they aren't going for much over retail. Was hoping I could repeat the Great Wii Profit Making of a couple years ago where I picked up 6 and sold them at over double retail.

They're hoping to sell 5 million by years end. I don't think production will be an issue for them. Everyone that's used mine has clearly wanted to buy one.

i know it's not around the corner, but pretty much every TRU that i've been to on Long Island has them, and it's only a train ride away...

one of my friends is a manager at the TRU in Carle Place, if you really need one for X-Mas just PM me and he can definitely hold one for you, and if they sell out in the meantime he can hold one for you when they get them back in...

Well I went ahead and swapped out my bundle at BB. Honestly the new camera is only marginally better noise wise (it does sound quite a bit smoother and doesn't have that jerky sound when going up/down). It seems they all have noise to some degree but I guess it just depends on how much you listen for it or your environment. On the positive side, my power supply fan doesn't buzz but is still somewhat loud (my other one was the same way though). Console is also quieter (fan wise) which is a plus. Other than a strange lock up, everything is good. I was loading up Kinect Adventures and brought up the dashboard option to cancel so I could go install the game (instead of running it off the disc). Well it didn't seem to like that at all because it never went back to the dashboard and the disc just kept running (with a blank screen). I had to power the system off and then everything was good. I know I hit the dashboard button before the game even finished loading so I think I might have caused this. I hope that was just a fluke, lol .

Are people using the kinect with only 6 feet distance? If so how is it working?

It's killing me, got the kinects with the new slim Xbox bundle, but my GF dosn't want it setup till Christmas, since it is a family present =(. I might breakdown and set it up this weekend just to see what it can do =).

Haha, I picked up 6 Kinects week before Thanksgiving with the same intentions and ended up taking 5 of them back and keeping one for the kids. Even though prices are about $50 over retail on ebay the time you've dealt with fees, packing and shipping it will leave you all of $10 profit. I was hoping that after Thanksgiving/Black Friday the prices would shoot up since they're now pretty much hard to find but I see they are still selling for the same price (ie $199).

Also, has anyone had any problems with Kinectimals loading? I'm getting disk unreadable or it freezes my Xbox. Never had this problem with any other disk I own, just this one. And my wife stupidly thew away the BB receipt so now I can't even get an exchange.

Microsoft released the Xbox and Kinect bundle for $299 so that ebay prices for single Kinect units wouldn't go over around $200.

Or you could leave them on the shelves for other people who work their asses off to afford this stuff, and not gouge them on ebay just so you can make a few bucks off of them for doing nothing productive for them. A few bucks that you obviously do not need.

Smart move. I think it's kind of slimy to go in and buy up all of the product just to sell at a profit. No better than a scalper, and I hate scalpers.

Went to a Modest Mouse concert in Vanderbilt and had to get tickets from a scalper. This was a charity concert too. Ended up spending 4 times as much money for a wheelchair ticket and a general admission ticket.