Does the Kinect Actually Work?

During Gamescom last weekend, Fighter Within added its name to a very short list of games that only work on the XBox One’s Kinect. This has restarted the debate about whether the Kinect actually works. I think most people would agree it is a good idea to have your body be the controller, but almost anyone who has used the original version has raged at the console for getting completely confused about what you were trying to do during a big move or boss fight. If you have a big living room, the Kinect works most of the time, but it is certainly not perfect and I’m doubtful the Kinect 2 will be much better.

The basic issue with Microsoft’s Kinect…

Is that it is taking one point of view with one camera and trying to extrapolate that two-dimensional image it gets into a three-dimensional world. The fact that the thing works at all is magic. I suppose it is just really good programming and intelligence, but if you showed a Kinect to somebody one hundred years ago they might believe it’s witchcraft. It seems like the with the Kinect problem is solvable. If the issue is that the console only has camera and so it can only create a 2D image, then why not give it two cameras? That’s how human eyes work. If you have two cameras you can get good enough depth perception to actually fight, so I would hope the Kinect could simulate a fight with the same technology. Why has nobody done this? The issue can’t be space because the XBox One is pretty large. I would like to see a console with two cameras. 

My dream of a two-camera console is not going to happen in the next generation, though.

So I’m going to play on a Kinect 2 before purchasing. They might be flawless, but I somehow doubt it. I don’t want to be worrying about the console while I’m playing a game; I want to be worrying about the game while I’m playing. Every time the Kinect gets confused I lose a little immersion, so I’m going to stay away from that technology for a bit. What about you?