MICROSOFT'S NEW, HANDS-FREE(?), INPUT DEVICE

Back when I played first person shooter games like Unreal Tournament, I was looking for any advantage that I could get over my competitors.  (I had to compensate for my lack of skill somehow.)  I tried a higher-end mouse, tweaking mouse settings, different mouse drivers, a track ball, a fully customizable peripheral game board, and a 3Dconnexion SpaceBall.  None of these helped.  All of the trial and error was in hopes that I could assemble a software/hardware package that got me as close as possible to the elusive goal of “Think it and it happens as you intend.”

Now there’s a new product on the market that has captured my imagination.  It’s called Kinect.  It’s a webcam-style add-on peripheral for the Xbox 360 by Microsoft.  The concept is “you are the controller.”  It works like a 3D scanner in its ability to recognize and interact with multiple people, their appendages and their distance from the camera. So far, most of the games involve dancing, boxing, running and jumping .

I found this video on YouTube today.  It shows a Windows PC being manipulated by human gestures with the use of a Kinect.  With a little more browsing of YouTube, related videos mention the 2002 film, Minority Report.  In that movie, computers weren’t controlled by the mouse and keyboard input devices like we have today; they were controlled by hand gestures and speech.  The Kinect does that.  How long until we see such technology integrated into our 3D design tools?  And, will it be any good?

-Satakal