A British retailer has posted a set of technical specifications for Microsoft's upcoming motion-control peripheral, Kinect. Interestingly, it says only two "active" players can be tracked at any one time.
While the camera can track "up to six people", it can only handle two "active players" at a time, relegating the rest to support roles at best, and idle spectators at worst. Asking for six players at once may have been a pipe dream, but with the Wii supporting four players, a limit of two "active players" will be a let-down to owners upgrading and expecting the whole family to be able to play at once.
The specs in full are below:
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
320x240 16-bit depth @ 30 frames/sec
640x480 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
The specs carry with them a disclaimer, reading "This information is based on specifications supplied by manufacturers and should be used for guidance only", but if you were ever going to take a set of specs on face value, you'd take the ones provided by the, you know. Manufacturers of the device.
