Kinect to the world of virtual game playing

Remember joysticks? Those old things you used to control your game characters? Microsoft is hoping that you’ll forget all about them this winter. Earlier this month, it unleashed Kinect, a controller-free motion-gaming device for the Xbox 360 console.
Remarkably, the device delivers on its promises. Kinect keeps much of the simplicity and charm that made the Nintendo Wii a hit. It also raises the bar for motion sensor devices. It is able to accurately map a player’s body and respond to their movements and even their voice commands.

Instead of using a physical controller to play games and movies on your Xbox 360, Kinect allows you to simply move your body–hands, feet, hips–to do everything.

Kinect uses an infrared light and a camera to create a 3-D image of your play area. Anyone in the camera’s frame is also included in the image. From this, it can recognize body shapes and movements. Finally, it can quickly match the players’ images to a Kinect or Xbox Live profile.

Kinect comes packaged with Kinect Adventures, a collection of sport and adventure games that make use of the Kinect motion camera. Multiple players can engage in challenges like a boat game (River Rush) and another game that combines dodgeball with bowling (Rally Ball).

And the games themselves are easy to learn and start playing. One example is Space Pop, where you flap your arms to fly in a low-gravity room and pop bubbles as they appear.

Motion-sensor gaming has now hit all three major gaming platforms. Nintendo’s Wii arrived first. Sony’s Move for PlayStation 3 added more realistic games, graphics and highly acute player control.

Perhaps Microsoft Kinect does not give players the control over their characters that the Move does. However, it is likely to result in a much wider variety of games for players to enjoy. Kinect offer gamers rich new possibilities. I will forever more feel a touch guilty while sitting in that well-worn corner of my couch to play a video game.