Microsoft Kinect Case Study

Introduction:
Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational technology corporation headquartered in

Redmond, Washington. Microsoft’s best-known software products are the Windows line of
operating systems, the Microsoft 365 suite of productivity applications, and the Edge web
browser. Its flagship hardware products are the Xbox video game consoles and the Microsoft
Surface lineup of touchscreen personal computers. Microsoft ranked No. 14 in the 2022 Fortune
500 rankings of the largest United States corporations by total revenue;[2] it was the world’s
largest software maker by revenue as of 2022. It is considered one of the Big Five American
information technology companies, alongside Alphabet (parent company of Google), Amazon,
Apple, and Meta (parent company of Facebook). [1]
Kinect is a line of motion sensing input devices produced by Microsoft and first released in
2010. The devices generally contain RGB cameras, and infrared projectors and detectors that
map depth through either structured light or time of flight calculations, which can in turn be used
to perform real-time gesture recognition and body skeletal detection, among other capabilities.
They also contain microphones that can be used for speech recognition and voice control. [2]
Video games are no longer just for the agile finger and thumb crowd. The gaming industry has
gone full motion first with the Wii console and now with Microsoft’s Xbox Kinect. Gone are
need for controllers; this is full-body gaming. In this article we review how it works and after
extensive personal testing we’ll pass judgment on whether this technology is ready for
primetime.
This little black box contains multiple features that allow gamers to be the controller and feel as
if they are actually in the game. When we heard about this sensor giving players’ the ability to
transform their entire bodies into a game controller, we were convinced that we just had to
investigate what really goes on inside of this revolutionary device. [3]
RGB camera -That stores three-channel data in a 1280 x 960 resolution at 12 frames per second,
or a 640 x 480 resolution at 30 frames per second. This makes capturing a color image or video
possible.
Infrared (IR) emitter and an IR depth sensor -The emitter emits infrared light beams and the
depth sensor reads the IR beams reflected back to the sensor. The reflected beams are converted
into depth information measuring the distance between an object and the sensor. This makes
capturing a depth image possible.
Multi-array microphone -That contains four microphones for capturing sound. Because there are
four microphones, it is possible to record audio from a specific direction, as well as find the
location of the sound source and the direction of the audio wave.[5]
Software:
The software Is what makes the Kinect a breakthrough device. Developers for the Kinect
gathered an incredible amount of data regarding motion-capture of actual moving things in real-
life scenarios. Processing all of this data using a special artificial intelligence machine-learning
algorithm allows the Kinect to map the visual data it collects to models representing people of
different backgrounds (age, height, gender, body type, clothing and more). This is just one of the
ways that developers were able to help the Kinect “learn” about its surroundings and what it is
actually seeing.
How it works:
1. Invisible Light Source Illuminates Subject
2. Sensor Chip measures distance light travels to each pixel within the chip.
3. Unique Embedded Imaging Software uses “Depth Map” to perceived and identify objects
in real time.
4. End-user reacts appropriately.
Hardware:
The Kinect contains three vital pieces that work together to detect your motion and create your
physical image on the screen: an RGB color VGA video camera, a depth sensor, and a multi-
array microphone.
The camera detects the red, green, and blue color components as well as body-type and facial
features.
Application:
Gaming Console and Gaming purpose.
- Ex. Xbox 360 and Xbox one.
Robotic applications.
- Ex. MIT and UC Berkley researchers teamed up to create a quadrocopter capable of
autonomous flight.
Interactive science experiments.

- Ex. Team from the University of Konstanz in Germany paired the Kinect to help the blind
navigate on their own.
Exercise and physical therapy.
Language/speech learning.
- Ex. Natural human-computer interaction with Kinect and Leap Motion
Home Healthcare / Tele-Medicine.
History of Microsoft Kinect:
Kinect was originally developed as a motion controller peripheral for Xbox video game consoles,
distinguished from competitors (such as Nintendo’s Wii Remote and Sony’s PlayStation Move)
by not requiring physical controllers. The first-generation Kinect was based on technology from
Israeli company PrimeSense, and unveiled at E3 2009 as a peripheral for Xbox 360 codenamed
“Project Natal”. It was first released on November 4, 2010, and would go on to sell eight million
units in its first 60 days of availability. The majority of the games developd for Kinect were
casual, family-oriented titles, which helped to attract new audiences to Xbox 360, but did not
result in wide adoption by the console’s existing, overall userbase.
As part of the 2013 unveiling of Xbox 360’s successor, Xbox One, Microsoft unveiled a second-
generation version of Kinect with improved tracking capabilities. Microsoft also announced that
Kinect would be a required component of the console, and that it would not function unless the
peripheral is connected. The requirement proved controversial among users and critics due to
privacy concerns, prompting Microsoft to backtrack on the decision. However, Microsoft still
bundled the new Kinect with Xbox One consoles upon their launch in November 2013. A market
for Kinect-based games still did not emerge after the Xbox One’s launch; Microsoft would later
offer Xbox One hardware bundles without Kinect included, and later revisions of the console
removed the dedicated ports used to connect it (requiring a powered USB adapter instead).
Microsoft ended production of Kinect for Xbox One in October 2017.
Kinect has also been used as part of non-game applications in academic and commercial
environments, as it was cheaper and more robust compared to other depth-sensing technologies
at the time. While Microsoft initially objected to such applications, it later released software
development kits (SDKs) for the development of Microsoft Windows applications that use
Kinect. In 2020, Microsoft released Azure Kinect as a continuation of the technology integrated
with the Microsoft Azure cloud computing platform. Part of the Kinect technology was also used
within Microsoft’s HoloLens project. Microsoft discontinued the Azure Kinect developer kits in
October 2023. [4]
Advantages of Microsoft Kinect:

1. Easy setup and avatar customisation2. Kinect Adventures (comes bundled with the
Kinect)
2. Kinect Adventures (comes bundled with the Kinect)
3. No controllers so no memorizing buttons
4. A new genre of gaming
Challenges:
Lots of variation in bodies, orientation, poses

Lots of data to recognize of different poses, body, weight.
Reference:
[1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft
[2] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kinect#:~:text=Introduction,-Steven%20Spielberg
%20(right&text=Kinect%20was%20first%20announced%20to,the%20technology%20and%20its
%20potential.
[3]
https://www.jameco.com/Jameco/workshop/Howitworks/xboxkinect.html#:~:text=The
%20Kinect%20contains%20three%20vital,body%2Dtype%20and%20facial%20features.
[4]
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kinect#:~:text=The%20first%2Dgeneration%20Kinect
%20was,first%2060%20days%20of%20availability.
[5]
https://www.slideshare.net/mihirpatel32/microsoft-kinect-for-humancomputer-interaction

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Introduction:

Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational technology corporation headquartered in

Interactive science experiments.

Exercise and physical therapy.

Home Healthcare / Tele-Medicine.

History of Microsoft Kinect:

Advantages of Microsoft Kinect:

Lots of variation in bodies, orientation, poses

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