“Ron,” an engineer who’s part of the team behind Microsoft’s Kinect, showed off how the device works with some of the system’s various apps at Microsoft’s press conference. He began by simply waving to get Kinect alert and ready, then did another wave motion to open up a hub (shown above).
By moving his hand around, his motions controlled an on-screen pointer shaped like, get this, a hand. It all looked pretty seamless, and more importantly, smart.
Saying words like “Xbox” will have Kinect listening. By saying “Zune,” Ron launched the Zune channel. He then began watching a clip ofAlice in Wonderland. “Xbox, play.” The clip started playing. “Xbox, pause.” The movie paused.
Next, the Zune Music channel was put on display. Similarly, Ron used his hand to control the interface. He was able to skip to different songs without picking up a controller. Justin Bieber was shown, unfortunately. All in all, I was impressed with Kinect — more so than with any of the silly games shown so far.
