News - ASUS Windows 8 laptops spied with integrated Kinect

[HEXUS]

Will we need a keyboard and mouse when Kinect truly arrives on Windows?

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[Animus404]

Well, this probably isn't the most imaginative use for Kinect, but it would be nice to have TrackIR type functionality in more games, especially driving, flight sims or others like Arma. You wouldn't need a silly head set, or a custom build hat like I have for use with FreeTrack.

[AlexKitch]

I can't imagine Kinect really working well on a laptop. The whole idea of a laptop is that it sits on your lap. Will the sensors be up to the challenge of tracking movements at such short range?

[crossy]

I can't imagine Kinect really working well on a laptop. The whole idea of a laptop is that it sits on your lap. Will the sensors be up to the challenge of tracking movements at such short range?

Short answer (from the article at least) - "no". According to that diagram if you're closer than 40cm then the Kinect technology won't be able to see you. Not so much of as "near" mode as a "less far away" mode in my book.

I'd also love if "near" mode made it to the XBox - then at least I could make more use of it than I do now. Don't tend to stand up when gaming (unless it's fitness games, Wii Sports, stuff like that) so the current XBox+Kinect arrangement is less than ideal.

Now if they reduced that standoff distance further - say to 20cm - then that's arguably worth having. At the moment unless you dock that laptop I can't see you being able to use it's Kinect features.

[Animus404]

40cm is pretty close, I normally use my laptop at a table or desk, and I just measured how far away I am from the webcam and it's about 60cm

I've also just made myself look rather stupid by swiping my hands about infront of the laptop, in the middle of a busy office. A quick estimate would be that my hands, while swiping, were about 20cm from where the kinect sensor would be placed.

[cheesemp]

The current Kinect doesn't work at 2 meters away let alone 0.8 meters! Not sure I believe the figures...

[Steven W]

I can't be arsed using my Kinect, it doesn't understand my accent.