Suppose a government wanted to monitor it’s citizens — for their own good, of course — at home. Suppose MS was required to put in a backdoor into its new Xbox’s software to allow access to the Kinect at all times to allow watching what’s happening and being said… Naw. That’s crazy, paranoid, 1984 talk.
Microsoft plans to release a next-generation Kinect device so accurate it can lip read, sources have told Eurogamer. Kinect 2 will come bundled with future Xbox consoles, we understand.
The intention is that Kinect 2 will offer improved motion sensing and voice recognition. One development source told Eurogamer that Kinect 2 will be so powerful it will enable games to lip read, detect when players are angry, and determine in which direction they are facing. Kinect 2 can track the pitch and volume of player voices and facial characteristics to measure different emotional states.
Oh please. Don’t you know there’s been a camera and mic behind that little purple window on your cable box for years?
That’s the rumor that was started when the federal government began distributing vouchers in order to buy digital over-the-air TV tuners when the analog TV signals were phased out. Another rumor was that the digital tuner was also “two-way” so it could transmit the collected intelligence somewhere.
Research was conducted by the late 1990s by A. C. Nielsen Co. for a face recognition technology that would recognize TV viewers so that the viewers wouldn’t need to fill out logs.
Maybe they can build this Kinects 2 technology into a Robo-dog. That can detect facial and vocal characteristics, and react as a dog might. Why must it be only a game device? If it fits in an X-Box, it’ll fit into some eprom chips, in a mechanical pet.
If it has a microphone, why then does the Kinect 2 need a lip-reading capability?
Question: Doesn’t the current Kinect have a similar capability? The ability to scan a game player’s room and detect specific items, for instance?
It might be a little paranoid but I keep my webcam covered when I’m not actively using it.
I’m not so much worried about someone spying on me, I’m worried that I’ll accidentally turn it on when I’m not dressed.
It seems like an easy mistake to make.
The only people that need to fear the government are the ones that are alive.
Got a laptop or tablet? Does it have a camera facing your way? Does it have a mike? They may be recording everything you do not just the stuff you use a computer to do. They still have issues trying to sort through all that information.
You think I’m paranoid?
Lieberman among others says he wants the US government to be able to do the sort of things China does with its version of the internet.
Just because I’m paranoid doesn’t mean that these creeps aren’t out to gain all power for themselves.
Really Good, its dangerous
The Kinect will never catch on, it requires people to exercise.
That’s a funny comment. Because kinect broke the world record of electronic sales. At 10 million in 60 days. And another 8 million a few months after that.