A British retailer has posted a set of technical specifications for Microsoft’s upcoming motion-control peripheral, Kinect. Interestingly, it says only two players can be tracked at any one time.
While the camera can track “up to six people”, it can only handle two “active players” at a time, relegating the rest to support roles at best, and idle spectators at worst. Asking for six players at once may have been a pipe dream, but with the Wii supporting four players, a limit of two “active players” will be a let-down to owners upgrading and expecting the whole family to be able to play at once.
The specs in full are below:
Sensor
Colour and depth-sensing lenses
Voice microphone array
Tilt motor for sensor adjustment
Fully compatible with existing Xbox 360 consoles
Field of View
Horizontal field of view: 57 degrees
Vertical field of view: 43 degrees
Physical tilt range: ± 27 degrees
Depth sensor range: 1.2m – 3.5m
Data Streams
320×240 16-bit depth @ 30 frames/sec
640×480 32-bit colour@ 30 frames/sec
16-bit audio @ 16 kHz
Skeletal Tracking System
Tracks up to 6 people, including 2 active players
Tracks 20 joints per active player
Ability to map active players to LIVE Avatars
Audio System
LIVE party chat and in-game voice chat (requires Xbox LIVE Gold Membership)
Echo cancellation system enhances voice input
Speech recognition in multiple
The specs carry with them a disclaimer, reading “This information is based on specifications supplied by manufacturers and should be used for guidance only”, but if you were ever going to take a set of specs on face value, you’d take the ones provided by the, you know. Manufacturers of the device.
Kinect [Play.com]
Kyle_Katarn
Wednesday, June 30, 2010 at 6:24 PMMicrosoft Kinect: Fun for the whole family. Half at the time.
Dilbert
Wednesday, June 30, 2010 at 7:46 PMMicrosoft Kinect: Fun for half the family
OrderOfFaith
Wednesday, June 30, 2010 at 9:01 PMI think sony’s move is the same thing as well.
Only tracks max of 2 people regardless of the coloured balls, and the multiple controllers.
NotoriousR
Wednesday, June 30, 2010 at 10:29 PMhttp://www.gizmodo.com.au/2010/03/playstation-move-gimps-4-player-support/
But then again, Natal did say 4 people can play. Smoke and mirrors!
OrderOfFaith
Thursday, July 1, 2010 at 9:21 PMThanks for that, knew I saw it somewhere.
Couldnt remember the details.
At least I dont have to worry about going over board with 4 move controllers now.
Jay
Wednesday, June 30, 2010 at 11:54 PMI reckon 2 players would depend on the game…
Perhaps more ‘casual’ games that doesn’t require you jumping around like a moron would allow something like 4 players but more active games and ‘core’ games perhaps would be limited to 2 players.
Well hopefully, for Kinects sake.