FW: Kinect to the Metaverse

from my friend John 

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Here's the NYT article about the new Microsoft gaming system that enters Neal Stephenson territory:

 

 

The Kinect is a glossy, foot-wide, black plastic horizontal bar. You plug its single cable into your Xbox.  You park the Kinect itself on, or beside, your TV. During start-up, a motor moves the bar on its stand, making it scan the room up and down like some would-be Wall-E.
 
It has four microphones and three little lenses: a video camera, an infrared projector and a distance sensor. Together, these lenses determine where you are in the room.
 
And not just you. The system tracks 48 parts of your body in three-dimensional space. It doesn't just know where your hand is, like the Wii. No, the Kinect tracks the motion of your head, hands, torso, waist, knees, feet and so on.
 
The point is to let you control games with your body, without having to find, hold, learn or recharge a controller. Your digital stunt double appears on the TV screen. What you do, it does.
 
It doesn't merely recognize that someone is there; it recognizes your face and body. In some games, you can jump in to take a buddy's place; the game instantly notices the change and signs you in under your own name. If you leave the room, it pauses the game automatically.
 
There's a crazy, magical, omigosh rush the first time you try the Kinect. It's an experience you've never had before.
 
full @  http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/04/technology/personaltech/04pogue.html