Microsoft Kinect to offer video chat, ship November
updated 07:25 am EDT, Mon June 14, 2010
Xbox 360 Kinect controls Xbox UI, video cats
Microsoft very early this morning confirmed the first details of Kinect, the new name for Project Natal. The Xbox 360's motion controller add-on will be useful for games like a Star Wars Jedi title and the pet play game Kinectimals but will also be useful for large parts of the console's interface. A video chat app is new and will let users share photos, and much of the Xbox Dashboard will be controllable with hand gestures.
The company won't provide pricing or an exact ship date, but a social network update has the Kinect add-on shipping in November, five years after the Xbox 360 first shipped. It may cost as much as $150 but should be accompanied by a slimmer, upgraded Xbox with a 250GB drive and internal Wi-Fi.
Kinect works through a dual-camera system that can recognize human movement and can match it to in-game characters, including distance. It also has a microphone and should provide voice commands both in-game and in the Dashboard.
