Xbox live and kinect

To keep gamers interested, Microsoft introduced live gaming which continued on to Xbox 360. On Xbox live, people can meet other players and even play with other and the Xbox live has now turned into like a big gamers village in which gamers play from around the world and you can even send messages to your own friends and play matches with them.

Another thing that Microsoft introduced to keep its customer happy and interested was the announcement and release of the Xbox Kinect. Kinect is a motion sensing input device released by Microsoft for the 360 game consoles and window’s PC. It is based on a webcam style add-on on the Xbox 360 console which enables users to interact with the 360 without using the controller. This project was aimed to broadening the 360 audience beyond its typical gaming base. An Xbox Kinect version for windows was released on the 1 February 2012. The Xbox Kinect was competing with the Wii remote plus from Nintendo and the Playstation move from Playstation.

The Kinect also has a voice recognition system by which you can control your console by using voice commands. The voice recognition is used by saying the word Xbox. By saying that a microphone appears at the bottom of the screen, then you can say any word or phrase that appears on the screen to get it done without using the controller. For example by saying “Xbox open tray” will open the disc tray.

The Kinect claimed the Guinness world record for being the “fastest selling consumer electronics device”.  After its launch, the Kinect has sold over 8 million units worldwide in its first 60 days of launch.  Since its launch, Microsoft has sold 24 million units of Kinect by January 2012.

The machine learning work on the human motion capture within the Xbox Kinect won the 2011 MacRobert Award for engineering innovation. Kinect also won the T3’s gadget of the year award for 2011 and also the gaming gadget of the year prize. 

REFERENCES:

http://support.xbox.com/en-GB/xbox-360/kinect/control-your-xbox-360-with-your-voice (accessed on 20/05/2013)

https://shop.pkr.com/product/KINECT01/Xbox_Kinect_Sensor.html (accessed on 20/05/2013)