In searching around the interwebs today, I found a link to a new XBox Kinect feature. (Here's the link for everyone!) It's called Avatar Kinect. I think it's a pretty nifty idea. You sit down in front of your XBox Kinect, invite your friends to join you, and you can have a conversation with those friends with the backdrop of your choice. Backdrops include football tailgating, talk show, news desk, and more. This new item is part of the Kinect Fun Labs Gadget.
I suppose that my biggest disappointment is that we know very few people with a Kinect, much less an XBox. I'm also slightly creeped-out by the whole thing. (and yes, you should get off my lawn, you dang kids!) I mean, it's pretty cool technology, but it's also kinda weird to see yourself, as a cartoon avatar, talking to other cartoon avatars. If the reports are correct, the Kinect is able to pick up all of your body language, from swinging arms to raised eyebrows.
I guess we'll just have to test it out to see how it really works. I'm not sure of the practical applications, but it would be pretty sweet to have a virtual football tailgate with my parents, who live across the state. I will also have to look into how the gadget deals with multiple people in the same room. I would prefer to have a different avatar for me, my husband, and the little one. The video seemed to imply this was possible, but I wonder if there is a cap on the number of people in the same room?
Seems like the only thing people are doing with the Kinect is hacking it and using it as Eye of Sauron paper weights (http://www.geekosystem.com/eye-of-sauron-kinect-hack/), which is kind of disappointing. I remember when I first played TES: Daggerfall for PC back in the mid 90s, swinging the mouse to swing your weapon was the bee's knees. Of course, there are now so many more complex things that you can do in a video game besides jump and hit things, controllers need to have more buttons... I'm just rambling, not sure what my point was.
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