The Kinect has been in the media spotlight for a little over a week now, and yet we’re just today finding out the actual specs. Thanks to UK e-tailer Play.com, the nitty gritty is finally known (and slightly disappointing). The Kinect only musters two resolutions (320×240 and 640×480) at a max of 30fps. At such low resolutionstins, hand gestures and other subtle body movements aren’t likely to be picked up. Furthermore, there’s a two person limit to the Kinect. Though, considering the Kinect’s filed of view is a rather narrow 57 degrees means anything more than two human bodies would have been a tight squeeze for sure.
And one other tidbit that’s sure to leave your morning slightly less cheery now is the issue of lag. At the resolution and capped frame rate, minimum response time is a rather pokey 33ms. If you watched some of the demos on stage at E3, you’ll know what I’m talking about.
All in all, the Kinect is still a great hardware accessory for the Xbox 360 and in my mind, a fair amount ahead of the Wii or PS3′s motion efforts. But it could have been so much better. Maybe Kinect 2, hmm?
Hop inside for the full Kinect spec list and let us know what you think…
Kinect Hardware Spec List:
Sensor
Colour and depth-sensing lenses
Voice microphone array
Tilt motor for sensor adjustment
Fully compatible with existing Xbox 360 consoles
Field of View
Horizontal field of view: 57 degrees
Vertical field of view: 43 degrees
Physical tilt range: ± 27 degrees
Depth sensor range: 1.2m – 3.5m
Data Streams
320×240 16-bit depth @ 30 frames/sec
640×480 32-bit colour@ 30 frames/sec
16-bit audio @ 16 kHz
Skeletal Tracking System
Tracks up to 6 people, including 2 active players
Tracks 20 joints per active player
Ability to map active players to Live Avatars
Audio System
Live party chat and in-game voice chat (requires Xbox Live Gold Membership)
Echo cancellation system enhances voice input
Speech recognition in multiple
