I'm having a rough week. I've worked my poor little fingers to the bone, and burned the midnight oil about as much as I can. So today I've been spending the little down time I've had reading about Microsoft's new gadget Kinect. If you haven't heard about this, I don't blame you. I've been so focused on work, family, and dirtbikes, that it took my brother Matt telling me about it. Sure, I'd heard about it, but I hadn't done the smallest amount of reading, and didn't really understand what it did.
Now I have, and I'm blown away. Basically the Kinect is a sensor that you put above or below your television, and plug into your Xbox 360. Then you play games similar to the games using your body as the controller. Nope, that wasn't a typo, your body is the controller. I never bought a Wii, and only played on one a couple of times. I've never even touched the Playstation Move. Of course I haven't played with the Kinect yet either... but I will be buying one.
"Why?" I'm glad you asked! Because even with it's current limitations, it is a giant leap into the future of user interfaces. You don't have to hold a controller, it senses your arm (and leg) movements. Depending on the distance from the controller it can also detect hand movements. It does facial recognition, and can automatically load your profile when you get on your console to play! This is a fundamental re-imagining of the way we will interact with technology in the future. This is motion capturing that is light years beyond the techniques used in creating The Matrix!
So on to part two on this post. I've read three or four different blogs, tech articles, and reviews today. In each and every case there is at least one moron in the comments section bashing Microsoft. Why? I'm no Barack Obama fan, but if he did something brilliant (like reduce federal spending, or reduce tax rates across the board), I wouldn't be the first to sing his praises. It seems that there are some people that can't put partisanship aside for anything, be it politics, or gaming consoles.
Here are some of the most ludicris complaints I've read, and my reactions to them;
"I guess it's cool, but $150! and M$ is making almost $100 per device in profit!"
Umm, were you stupid enough to think that Microsoft is a charity? According to EEtimes the Kinect costs Microsoft only $56 to produce. OK even if that was the case, I'd be completely fine with it. However the EEtimes article is completely misleading. The $56 price tag is what it would cost to buy all of the parts. It doesn't account for assembly, shipping it to the local Game Stop, or "gasp" the R&D that went into determining what combination of $56 worth of parts it would take in order to achieve the results!
The original prototype cost Microsoft $30,000 to build. They have spent an estimated $500 million in advertising to get people on the Kinect bandwagon (obviously it didn't work for me). But this is all part of the larger problem, and until we start teaching the younger generation that people deserve to get paid for their work, it's going to keep getting worse.
Mike
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