Ever wondered how Kinect and Eye, which, for all practical purposes, look just like a webcam, detect your entire body’s motion and let you play games without using controllers? Console add-ons such as Kinect use an array of sensors to identify you and your gestures. These contraptions use basic equipment like cameras and microphones to recognise and isolate you from other objects in the room and pin-point your position with respect to the console. The cameras work in tandem with facial recognition software too, to ‘identify’ each gamer and build a profile for each gamer.

More advanced sensors include infrared-laser sensors, gesture recognition software, proximity sensors etc to obtain a three dimensional profile of the gamer, and translate the body movements into gameplay elements. The infrared-laser sensors are intended to provide the console’s computer to track the player’s movements under any ambient light conditions. So even if you are playing in a dimly-lit room, your Nintendo Wii or PlayStation 3 can recognise if you’re tilting your head or waving your arm accurately.

However, these sensors have a specific minimum area that they require to operate properly. If you’ve played games like Dance Central, you may remember a message popping up on the screen to stand at a certain distance away from the Kinect. That’s because the lenses over the cameras and infrared sensors need to have a minimum distance between them and the subject to obtain a full profile. Future gaming add-ons are also touted to pack thermal sensors and biometric sensors to be worn by the gamer so that the game’s engine can also translate what the player ‘feels’ into gaming aspects.

Related Topics