Kinect and Privacy
Not only does Kinect recognize its users, but it can also see in the dark thanks to an active infrared camera. Through a combination of its color and IR sensors, Kinect detects minute changes in flesh tones, which translate to heart rates.
Using advanced software models, the Xbox One understands the orientation of your body, as well as the force exerted on different muscle groups. This feature is heavily utilized by the Xbox Fitness online service, which takes popular fitness videos and makes them interactive. Now that's insanity.
You're no longer giving the console inputs through just its controller. Now the machine is gathering information passively expressed by you. Unsettling? Maybe. But this is the sort of thing from science fiction movies, and it has to start somewhere. What'll guide acceptance of this sort of technology is how corporations manage the data they're seeing. In a time where behavioral patterns are peddled for cash to the highest bidder, and we distrust those monitoring us, success isn't going to be easy.
For its part, Microsoft updated its Xbox privacy statement with new entries for Kinect. It reads:
Kinect creates a virtual gaming environment where your body motions and voice can be used to control gameplay and to navigate through the Service. Kinect uses an infrared sensor, camera, and microphone to make control possible.
The camera can be used to sign you in. To do so, it measures distances between key points on your face to create a numeric value that represents only you. No one could look at the numbers and know they represent you. This authentication information stays on the console and is not shared with anyone.
You control what happens to photographs taken during gameplay and whether voice commands are captured for analysis. You can turn Kinect off at any time.
When Kinect is used with certain games and apps, your skeletal movements can be used to estimate exercise stats. You can decide how your stats are managed and whether they are shared.
Some game titles may take advantage of a new Xbox capability called expressions. This feature allows you to use your defined facial expressions to control or influence a game. This data does not identify you, stays on the console and is destroyed once your session ends.
Microsoft made a difficult, cost-adding choice to include the Kinect with every Xbox One. It's likely the biggest contributor to the $100 premium over Sony's PS4. That was a very risky move considering the price sensitivity of gamers during the holiday season.
But the age-old challenge presented by console peripherals is that, unless a feature is universal, developers won't consider support a priority. The original Kinect didn't fail in this regard, but any developer peddling a game dependent on the camera accessory knew its customer base was markedly smaller. All things considered, though, I believe that Microsoft made the right call. It was the only way to ensure developers considered Kinect for every game they made. Ultimately, the Xbox One has a greater opportunity to move the dial on future-looking interaction with the console compared to Sony's PS4 as a result.
- Xbox One: The Exterior Design
- Power, Internal Storage, And Game Installations
- The Xbox One CPU: Complements Of AMD's Jaguar µArch
- The Xbox One GPU: GCN-Based
- The Xbox One's Controller: Vastly Improved
- A New Kinect Camera: The Xbox One's Other Controller
- Kinect, Your Privacy, And The Future
- Watching TV Through The Xbox One
- More Software: Snap, IE, Bing, And Smartglass
- Is The Xbox One Convergence Done Right?


At the time being,IMO PS4 is a better gaming machine;whereas,X1 is a better entertainment system.
PS4 has a more powerful GPU so it should perform better in games and is $100 cheaper too;whereas,X1 tries to do more than just gaming and costs more.
For me,PS4 is a better machine because I only tend to play games on a console but X1 is also a great machine
some of the ps4 reviews i read had info on gaming as well as media/entertainment. i mean info like how the games look and feel to a player, resolution and user perception, joystick (and other input devices) performance in gaming etc.
I'm pretty sure MS went over the usage stats of the 360 and found that more and more people were using the media/TV/movie aspects. After all thats where the money is.
MS could sell half as many Xbox Ones as Sony but it will still be making far more per console in subscriptions and services. The money going forward isn't in games.
However, I don't think this generation will be as long lived as the 360/PS4. I see One.5 or PS4.5 models or total replacement within 5 years.
I might be getting both, but to be honest I might not get any, as I've become more of a PC gamer
One day Tom's will move into the 21st century. Apologies folks.
It is not a bad thing when done right, yes, but then you'll have a "jack of all trades" instead of a "gaming machine". I'm not an advocate of putting too many specific functions into one device until the technology is up to par with the individual ones. Smartphone cameras is a fine example for that: today we find "good" picture quality compared to a Point and Shoot and it will get even better down the road thanks to tech advancements. In the case of consoles, I expect SteamBox to trash everything else in the living room gaming wise first and other-stuff second, including the recent-out consoles. There's a world of horsepower of difference between the custom APUs and using an Intel + nVidia/AMD video card with an optimized OS (SteamOS, remember?).
I'll need a first hand experience with the XB1 and the PS4, but as "consoles", they must not disappoint. Kinnect is a feature you should/can put in a PC/HTPC with little effort if you want one (we're in a tech site, so this phrase is valid). Same for the EyeToy. Hell, even speech recognition used in the XB1, I'm sure is a derivative from the one in Windows that anyone can actually tune and use.
Cheers!
At the time being,IMO PS4 is a better gaming machine;whereas,X1 is a better entertainment system.
PS4 has a more powerful GPU so it should perform better in games and is $100 cheaper too;whereas,X1 tries to do more than just gaming and costs more.
For me,PS4 is a better machine because I only tend to play games on a console but X1 is also a great machine
We'll have more stories on both consoles.
some of the ps4 reviews i read had info on gaming as well as media/entertainment. i mean info like how the games look and feel to a player, resolution and user perception, joystick (and other input devices) performance in gaming etc.
The problem is a lot of the functionality is limited until the day one update, which the press samples did not have yet. We will have follow ups in the coming weeks. I'll be out camping for mine Thursday night
*Edit I hope this doesn't double post -_-
The Xbox One may be an astounding piece of technology but it looks fat and ugly.