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Six feet is my arm span. It's actually a pretty short distance, but I can see that people with game systems in their bedrooms (teenagers) or at a computer desk in a small office would have a problem.
Well, that's what I mean - if you're in a small office or bedroom, you obviously won't have the space to move around (the 6ft they're recommending). There are obviously a lot of people that won't have a problem finding some space to play. I've got lots of space. The problem with me is jumping up and down with people living below me.
Or you're like me and you live in an old three-storey home that's over 100 years old that's been converted into an apartment building, and has squeeky hardwood floors that the people below you can undoubtedly hear. I'll get Kinect, but I'll avoid things that require jumping around so much. I really just want boxing, damnit.
Great tech article on the history of Kinect / Natal. It's very enlightening, but get ready for a long read though. It's 5 pages & about 5500 words.
http://www.wired.co.uk/wired-magazine/archive/2010/11/features/the-game-changer
Tommy McClain
Pretty standard PR puff piece. I'm surprised they aren't framing it with more of a "rebel group against the stogy shareholders" angle, like they used to describe the creation of Xbox. And Direct X. And Internet Explorer.
Kinect's much-discussed difficulty detecting sitting and lying down players was caused by it setting the base node used to create skeletal models at the bottom of the spine.
When players were sat down with their knees raised in front of their pelvis, Kinect encountered problems.
...
The console manufacturer updated the software used by developers to make sense of the information gathered by the Kinect sensor so that the base node was switched from the bottom of the spine to the back of the neck, according to a developer with more experience working with the technology than most.
"It means that should the bottom of your torso get confused with the sofa, because your bum and your legs are enveloped inside the sofa, it doesn't matter because your hands and arms are still working," Blitz Games Studios co-founder and Chief Technical Officer Andrew Oliver told Eurogamer. "You can do most actions."
...
While the changes made to Kinect's software libraries have come too late to be used in the motion-sensing add-on's launch line-up, "games going forward won't have a problem," Oliver reassured.
According to Eurogamer, Microsoft has fixed the problem with not being able to sit down...
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2010-10-15-kinects-sitting-down-woes-finally-over
Tommy McClain