Showing posts with label Kinect. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Kinect. Show all posts
Since the release of Kinect, apart from the simulations dance, few games are worth visiting. Blame it on a motion detector with limited ability to simulate the movement of an action game. "Kinect Star Wars" might deviate from this rule.You're in the shoes of a young padawan who completes his training starting battle hordes of Sith Droid and historically between episode I and II of "Star Wars". The dream of every geek. But the theory is somewhat different from the practice.
Given its Kinect, the grip turns chaotic. Jedi who is not willing. Specifically, a hand manipulates the lightsaber with precision, the other sends enemies to waltz through force. Not obvious. For travel, just a step forward for the apprentice to advance along a predetermined path. Levels are constructed as corridors where fights are edited. Basic and repetitive, without being forbidding. The whole enlivened by a few duels with iconic characters from "Star Wars".
The game then varies with races in control modules and pods, sequences of firing the turret aboard a ship, or phases in the shoes of a giant monster, where the aim is total destruction.
The problem of the game lies in the gameplay that requires a shaky staccato rhythm where you have to break all his movements one after another. To compensate, "Kinect Star Wars" proves incredibly easy. Die almost an achievement. The stupidity of the enemies is matched their movements slow and heavy.
Still, overall, the atmosphere of "Star Wars" is faithfully transcribed, mainly thanks to epic music. Too bad the graphics are so bland, especially for faces.
Although entertaining, this adventure is repetitive and uninspired. Gesticulating in front of the screen is taking a knight of the space has something enjoyable. Similarly, certain phases completely shifted, as the dance steps in the galactic palace of Jabba the Hutt, enliven the whole.
There are three active lines of work in South Korea's Samsung which supports the development of smartphones: Android, Bada and Windows Phone. The first one is the one that focuses more attention from the manufacturer's catalog, and though the Bada phone family may experience a shift towards Tizen environment, at present we are dealing with regard to the Microsoft ecosystem. At present, the terminal remains in the market for the Windows platform Samsung Phone are the Samsung Omnia Samsung Omnia 7 and W, both currently running Windows Phone 7.5 Mango.
However, the firm is preparing the launch of new devices designed to work with the next version of the platform, Windows Phone Apollo 8, which would leave the market in parallel with the arrival of Windows 8-1 operating system for computers, laptops and tablets. This was confirmed by South Korean company itself, which places the launch of at least one terminal with the new edition of the platform during the second half of the year.
Since Microsoft's plans is the development of a common platform to deploy new versions of Windows from October, is likely to think that the new Windows Mobile Phone Samsung Apollo 8 would not before the last quarter of the year . Nevertheless, there is no official data accuracy in this regard, so it only remains to wait for from the Asian company decide to share more about their plans.
Nor has transcended any information about the type of terminal that Samsung would be designed to accommodate Windows Phone Apollo 8. At the moment there is too much data that invite thinking about the performance and features that ensure the platform, but is likely to continue with the line that has been developing the people of Microsoft with current versions. Namely, an environment that seeks efficiency rather than requiring technical equipment hiperpotente. In fact, the terminals that are currently designed to run on Windows Phone 7.5 Mango does not have dual core processors, and let alone raises the possibility that this generation bet on quad-core chips.
Although we have seen advances in Windows 8 and tablet PC, which is usable in its beta-phase, is unknown at this time will look like Windows Phone 8. However, judging by what is seen in the desktop platform, it appears that there will be continuity in the interface line, which persist in the Metro concept, ie, based on tiles that display dynamic information about installed applications.
Among the rumors that have come to know about the future of Windows Phone has come to plan for the possibility that Microsoft is working on a dedicated version of its system of motor control of Xbox 360, Kinect, designed to work specifically under the requirements of a smart phone. Currently, systems with release of Android 4.0 facial recognition and voice virtual assistant Apple, Siri, are the closest thing to what would bring the company from Redmond.
Microsoft this morning pushed Avatar Kinect out to Xbox 360 users with its $150 Kinect motion camera accessory.
The software, which was publicly unveiled by Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer at CES in January, tracks facial movements and applies them to the user's virtual representation on screen. That means if your head is cocked, or your eyebrows are raised, those same motions get translated on screen. The technology is bundled into the Avatar Kinect software, which serves as a casual chat room for up to eight people in one of 24 virtual scenes.
The new chat tool joins a handful of other mini applications offered by Microsoft as part of its Kinect Fun Labs, which launched last month. On Thursday, Microsoft plans to add "Kinect Sparkler" to that collection of apps, $3 software that tracks hand movements to write with light on a 3D virtual canvas.
As part of the Avatar Kinect launch Microsoft is making the feature free for all Xbox Live members up until September 8. After that the feature will only be available to paying Xbox Live gold subscribers.
[via cnet]
Today Microsoft promised to transform TV advertising into an interactive experience, unveiling the highly anticipated ad platform for the Kinect called NUads. The platform uses the voice and gesture controls of Kinect for the Xbox 360, and will allow people to interact with television commercials as early as Spring 2012.
“I try to avoid hyperbole,” said Microsoft’s Mark Kroese, who oversees advertising for entertainment and devices. “But in this case of NUads and Kinect, I’m here to say that it will change television as we know it—forever.”
Kroese, blogging today from the Microsoft Advertising Business Conference at the Cannes International Advertising Festival, said advertisements placed across the Xbox LIVE experience will respond to various voice commands and motions. For example, viewers can vote in real time for a product or service by waving their hand, schedule a calendar reminder for an upcoming TV show, or say “Xbox Near Me” to see a map with directions to a nearby car dealership (shown in the picture to the left).
He explained that while television ads reach a broad audience, it has remained “stubbornly passive and one-way” for advertisers desiring an interactive experience, unlike PC and mobile interactive ads.
“People are inherently interactive all on their own,” wrote Kroese. “We just needed the technology to get out of their way.”
Launched in the winter of 2010, Kinect holds the Guinness World Record of being the “fastest selling consumer electronics device”. Microsoft announced in March 2011 that 10 million sensors had been sold worldwide.
In just a few hours, Microsoft's press briefing will kick off the 2011 Electronic Entertainment Expo. But, as is often the case with E3 press conferences, several details about the event have already leaked, courtesy of a report in USA Today.
According to the national daily, Microsoft will use part of its media event to unveil a version of Fruit Ninja for Kinect. Already a huge hit on the iPhone, iPad, and Android devices, the game from developer Halfbrick has players slice and dice fruit thrown at them via their devices' touchpads. Presumably, these motions would be replicated in the air with the Xbox 360's full-body motion-sensing system.
USA Today also confirmed speculation that surfaced earlier in the day that Microsoft was readying a partnership with the Walt Dinsey Co. for at least one Kinect game. The article confirmed the previously rumored title Kinect Disneyland Adventures, which lets players "visit a virtual Disneyland." No other details were given.
[usatoday]
